Previous work

Further development and testing of a concept for the documentation and evaluation of benefits of agricultural research for practice and society (2012-2016)

Project description

The established research evaluation primarily measures the scientific impact and uses indicators such as peer-reviewed publications, citation-based indicators and third-party funding. However, this does not adequately capture the extent to which contributions are made to solving societally relevant problems and generating benefits for practice and society. Agricultural research, in particular, however, has an important field of activity here, which will become even more important in the future in view of the challenges of climate change, food security and resource scarcity. This research project is intended to contribute to expanding the evaluation of agricultural research to include an evaluation of the benefits for practice and society.

The research work builds on the numerous existing evaluation concepts. These include both the research activities that make an impact more likely (e.g. lectures, workshops, practical publications) and an assessment of the actual impact. Obstacles for a broader establishment of these concepts exist, however, with regard to the effort for data collection.

The core objective of the project is the development of a documentation and evaluation concept that is adapted to agricultural research, tested and ready for use. This concept should be broad enough to cover all agricultural research in order to ensure that it can be used for various evaluation objects (scientists, projects, programmes, institutions). The documentation should have a high utility value for use in application and reporting in order not to increase the documentation effort for the scientists through synergy effects. Structured documentation templates, which are well-engineered for technical implementation in a database system, as well as analysis and evaluation grids are created. Development and testing is carried out on the basis of real research projects in which three perspectives - documenting scientists, research funding and evaluation - are integrated. In addition, the project is committed to working with agricultural research and relevant actors and experts to develop feasible and accepted establishment paths.

Thus, the adequate application of the desired criteria on a high-quality, robust and efficiently usable data basis should be ensured.

Project report (only in german language)

Development of a guideline for the evaluation of practice-oriented research on organic farming based on an analysis of the existing evaluation instruments of research (2008-2011)

Project description

The overall objective of this project is to develop a guideline for the evaluation of applied, practice-oriented and transdisciplinary research in the field of organic farming. This will be based on a critical analysis of existing research evaluation instruments from the perspective of organic farming research. The analyses and development work provided for in this project relate to the level of research carried out. The project will discuss how the "practical impact" can be measured and evaluated. The question of how the impact or consideration of results from research projects on organic farming can be assessed in practice will be investigated, with a view to the further development of this land use system.

Project report (only in German language)

Organic Eprints (with english summary)