ASIRPA Ex Post

ASIRPA ex post  aims to analyse and illustrate the contribution of past research to a present impact.

It is led by two project officers within INRAE’s Evaluation Directorate, who are responsible for carrying out case studies. These are proposed by directors of INRAE departments and conducted in collaboration with the researchers leading the research projects of the cases, the ASIRPA representatives at the department (if present), or the partnership and innovation officers.

Methodology

The ASIRPA ex post method mobilises three analytical tools, combined with a standardised reporting framework:

• Chronology: The chronology identifies the start and end points of the case, as well as the main events in between. Around fifteen key dates highlight the critical moments that made impacts possible or steered them: changes in context, unexpected events or new opportunities, arriving or leaving of actors from the impact trajectory, or changes in their strategies.
• Impact pathway: The impact pathway graphically represents the stages of impact generation. In general, before presenting the observed impacts of research, the impact pathway describes:
  • Research inputs (the research work)
  • Research outputs (the results of the research)
  • The knowledge journey outside the academic sphere: its transformation and use by socio-economic actors, as well as the intermediaries involved at each stage of the impact pathway.

Reconstructing the impact pathway is essential to identify INRAE's specific contribution to observed societal transformations and impacts. It is represented graphically as follows:

• Impact vector: Finally, an impact vector, summarised in a table and illustrated by a spider chart, describes the generated impacts. For each dimension, the intensity of the impact is rated on a scale from 1 (very low impact) to 5 (very high impact).