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Launched in 2011 by the Directorate General of INRAE, ASIRPA (Socio-Economic Analysis of the Impacts of Public Agronomic Research) aims to assess the societal impacts of the research conducted within the Institute.

ASIRPA is a method for assessing the societal impacts of INRAE’s research, developed by the Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Science, Innovation and Society (LISIS). The ASIRPA Ex Post version is based on standardized case studies, combining qualitative and quantitative analysis of research impacts along six dimensions: economic, environmental, political, health, social/territorial, and scientific (Figure 1). Each case study details how research contributes to transforming our agri-food systems, and generating positive outcomes for networks of actors, organisations, the environment, and the economy, in addition to enriching the academic knowledge base. The ASIRPA Real-Time version offers an approach enabling researchers and program managers – with other actors - to anticipate their societal impacts in order to accelerate and amplify them. Both versions of the approach rely on a main tool to describe, analyse and anticipate the mechanisms generating these impacts: the impact pathway.

Societal impact emerges from a long-term and dynamic process, where various actors contribute. We could compare this process to building a house: different actors must be coordinated, steps to take anticipated, and overall coherence ensured so that the house takes shape and becomes livable. In the same way, societal transformations result from collective processes in which researchers and other actors assume complementary roles and responsibilities. The impact pathway enables making explicit this dynamic, non-linear, multi-actor process, which connects Research and Innovation (R&I) projects and programmes to societal impacts.

ASIRPA offers two approaches, both based on building an impact pathway:
ASIRPA Ex Post – an approach to analyse and illustrate the contribution of past research to a present impact. It consists of reconstructing an impact pathway a posteriori. The approach is based on standardised case studies to qualify and quantify the societal impacts of research results produced by INRAE researchers. The impact pathway highlights the different stages and mechanisms leading to impacts, the specific role of research, and the mobilisation, appropriation, and transformation of knowledge by other actors.

ASIRPA Real-Time – an approach that aims to build an impact pathway in real time, while the R&I process is ongoing. The aim is to make explicit visions of desired futures, and to anticipate the pathways to achieve them. This implies analysing how research can contribute to this by mobilising a network of actors. The impact pathway thus becomes a tool for embedding directionality and collective learning.

Since the method was established, more than 60 ex post case studies have been carried out, and the real-time method is being used in more than 15 different contexts.