Assessing and demonstrating the impact of projects carried out by the Agricultural Technical Institutes network is one of our priorities, to ensure that the work carried out contributes to the desired changes for agricultural actors and generates beneficial environmental, social and economic effects.
The work carried out by the Acta network – the Agricultural Technical Institutes – goes beyond producing knowledge and solutions. Its aim is to help drive change in farming practices, agricultural sectors and farming systems.
Acta develops methods to understand, measure and demonstrate the value of these changes.
Impact refers to the changes produced, directly or indirectly, by a project or action.
It can be:
Above all, impact can emerge in the short, medium or long term, with effects that may differ from those initially intended.
An agricultural innovation does not create impact on its own.
From research and experimentation to knowledge transfer and adoption in the field, many stakeholders contribute to turning knowledge or innovation into tangible change.
Acta’s role is, in particular, to understand and document this value chain, identifying the contribution of the different stakeholders and the mechanisms that enable innovation to generate its effects.
Developed at the initiative of a group of Agricultural Technical Institutes, led by Acta and Idele, the Impacta method provides the entire Acta network with a methodology for assessing the impact of their work.
Its aim is to provide agricultural R&D with a toolbox to optimise project design and assess, over the medium and long term, the real changes taking place in the field.
The European projects involving Acta and the network of Agricultural Technical Institutes generate a wide range of tangible results: tools, experiments, resources or knowledge-transfer methods. Yet a useful result does not automatically become a result that is used: uptake, dissemination and integration into practices are essential steps in generating lasting impact.
That is why moving from results to impact is a major area of focus for the network, including in European projects. Produced by Acta’s Europe Department together with the Agricultural Technical Institutes, the booklet “Agricultural Technical Institutes at the heart of innovation in Europe” draws on 16 stories to analyse the conditions that help transform research results into concrete and sustainable solutions.
Based on these stories, Acta puts forward recommendations for policymakers to create the conditions for lasting impact: embed funding within long-term pathways; keep a multi-stakeholder approach at the heart of calls for proposals; support valorisation activities beyond the end of funding; and recognise the essential role of intermediary organisations in the uptake of innovations.
The booklet also offers key lessons for project leaders: involving users from the design stage, engaging intermediary organisations, structuring a genuine impact pathway and taking a project trajectory-based approach are all levers for fostering the sustainable adoption of innovations. This reflection builds on the expertise developed by Acta and the Agricultural Technical Institutes through the IMPACTA methodology, and is now informing European projects to strengthen the uptake, dissemination and long-term sustainability of results in the field.