In this paper a multi-regional international trade model using concepts of economic surplus and spillover effects is used to estimate the ex-ante measures of the relative economic benefits (accounting both direct and spillover benefits) to provide evidence for the research managers and policy makers in making judgment for prioritizing production domains for millets research focus and research resource allocation among regions and countries. The empirical results indicate that the highest expected benefits to millet research could be generated when research is focused on production domain of warm tropics dryland, 120-149 days but the high payoff production domains are different among regions. The contribution of spillover benefits to the total international benefits varies between 45 to 97% depending upon the research focus in different production domains. The analysis clearly brought out the insights to focus ICRISAT’s millet research to achieve maximum benefits to generate greater impacts and research investment decisions.