ASIRPA real-time impact evaluation

The ASIRPA approach to ex post evaluation of research impacts has shed light on the mechanisms that produce the impacts. The case studies carried out made it possible to identify in particular:

- Four types of impact paths with different properties and effects;

- Critical points generic to all cases, such as the problem of generalizing impacts, and others that are specific to certain impact paths.

The ambition of the ASIRPA team is now to build on these achievements (which must of course be refined and clarified) to design tools to assist in the conduct of research projects or programs, aiming at amplifying and accelerating the impacts. Given the uncertainty and complexity that characterize the transformation processes linked to research activities, it is not a question of designing ballistic control tools, nor of wanting to give some magic recipes. The aim is to produce a tool to aid the learning, coordination and reflexivity of the actors involved. With such a tool and the interactions it can generate (in training but also possibly on a digital platform), it is also a question of promoting exchanges between users and thus contributing to the creation of a community of practices.

Two implications of the team are underway and serve as a learning situation to support the development of the approach: an experience within the priority research program (PPR) "cultivate and protect otherwise", also called "zero pesticide", and an experiment in support of European projects.