MAIN OBJECTIVE

The main objective of AIRP-SD is to stimulate innovations in Research, Technological development and Demonstration (RTD) processes in order to enhance the prospects of RTD contributing positively to processes and strategies leading to radical improvements in the sustainability of production- consumption systems. This will be accomplished by developing recommendations for a European research programme. They will describe processes and strategies for innovative RTD programmes and list criteria necessary for sustainable EU research calls, proposals and evaluations. Best practices, induced and deduced criteria on how to leverage impacts on future research activity and how to make research more integral to sustainable development will be highlighted to EU and Member State science policy makers.

IMPORTANCE OF THE PROJECT

With the adoption of sustainable development as a policy goal of the European Union and its Member States, the question of how research policy might be used to promote and support sustainable development has grown in importance. There is intrinsic potential for research policy and practice to contribute to the process and goals of sustainable development. However, questions remain over how best to design and administer RTD programmes in support of sustainable development: • how to build relevant RTD capacities and how to convert intrinsic potential into actual results? • how research and implementation programmes might be oriented to serve the needs of sustainable development? • how RTD programmes might be designed so their outcomes and impacts support the process of sustainable development and actually contribute to the attainment of sustainability goals? • what kinds of research and supporting activities will contribute most effectively? • which RTD capacities need to be strengthened, where and how?

IDEA BEHIND THE PROJECT

Over the past decade different RTD and implementation programmes have been initiated across Europe and other world regions which aim to support sustainable development. To a large extent, because the challenges to science and research posed by sustainable development are so different from those traditionally faced, each programme, its design and the set of innovative methods it employs can be regarded as a "hypothesis" or set of "hypotheses" about the kinds of RTD activities that would best support the process of sustainable development and the attainment of sustainability goals. In the same vein, the implementation of each programme represents an empirical "test" of its underlying hypothesis in each applications context. In this project, the participants will learn from these "research policy experiments" and make an evaluation of the quality and effectiveness of each programme using a consistent methodology, based upon its impacts and achievements in relation to the challenges and goals of sustainable development.

Since there are many innovative programmes, we aim neither to be comprehensive nor representative, but rather for the selected programmes to illustrate a range of approaches that offer insights into what works well and why. Our case-studies will therefore reflect a diversity of programme constitutions, conceptualisations, designs, procedures, scales of inquiry, methods, and applications contexts. The only restrictions on our selection are that the RTD programmes should be innovative, well documented and (in the self-understanding of those involved in the programme) aimed at radically improving the sustainability of production-consumption systems. The project will evaluate the quality and consistency of each programme, identify strengths, weaknesses and best practices and assess the transferability of best practice. Through this, AIRP-SD will develop guidelines for strengthening the capacity of RTD processes generally to contribute toward sustainable development.

PROJECT PLAN

The six European project partners (see below for details) will link in a mutual learning process several European research programmes aimed at sustainability-related technology development and evaluate them according to a jointly developed set of quantitative and qualitative evidence-based indicators. These indicators will reflect strategies that enable Research, Technological Innovation and Demonstration (RTD) programmes to envision desirable sustainability futures, and develop means to foresee and overcome obstacles to the realisation of these futures. From these indicators a uniform methodological approach will be developed to evaluate RTD programmes across Europe, and the findings will support recommendations for the creation of an European research programme for more sustainable production and consumption processes.

During the first phase of the project sustainability-oriented RTD programmes, actors and innovations will be identified. In addition qualities and capacities which must contribute to sustainable RTD programmes will be identified and an evaluation methodology will be developed.

The second phase will start with a workshop of all partners during which they will share the results of phase one and will decide about the methods and case studies to be used in the next phase. A first round of evaluation of innovative national programmes using a common evaluation methodology will be followed by another workshop in the middle of the second phase in order to report preliminary findings, share experiences in using the evaluation methodology and provide an opportunity to refine the method for the following round of programme evaluations.

Based on the programme evaluations of the second phase, recommendations for a European research programme will be developed during the third phase. They will describe processes and strategies for innovative RTD programmes and list criteria necessary for sustainable EU research calls, proposals and evaluations. Best practices, induced and deduced criteria on how to leverage impacts on future research activity and how to make research more integral to sustainable development will be highlighted to EU and Member State science policy makers.