Planned and achieved impacts on agricultural research projects: a case study

Abstract

The objective of this study was to reflect and debate on a significant topic of agricultural research: its role in society. The study intended to deliberate over the recent changes proposed in the Sistema Embrapa de Gestão – SEG (Embrapa’s management system) regarding the management of Research and Development (R&D) agenda. This agenda aims to connect Embrapa with society, verifying the impacts of research and innovation results in problem solving, promotion of agricultural development and sustainability for the benefit of Brazilian society. It also intends to verify whether this target can be achieved and recognized by the country’s citizens. To accomplish this task, the Nucleus project was analyzed, taking into account the scope of the objectives, goals and results and their relationship with Embrapa’s innovation management model. Final considerations seek to show that the proposed change is an improvement in comparison to the previous system. However, there are some issues that need to be reassessed so that its benefits can bring fruitful results that are positively perceived by society. It is noteworthy that the determination of the research problem and evaluation of results continue in the “top-down” direction. The main issues that need to be improved are: defining a process of articulation with the actors of the innovation ecosystem, mainly the users, to determine research demands, as well as the use of solution co-creation instruments, and the participative management, monitoring and evaluation.