Research has a role to play in society’s endeavour for sustainable development. This is particularly true for agricultural research, since agriculture is at the nexus between numerous sustainable development goals. Yet, generally accepted methods for linking research outcomes to sustainability impacts are missing. We conducted a review of scientific literature to analyse how impacts of agricultural research were assessed and what types of impacts were covered. A total of 171 papers published between 2008 and 2016 were reviewed. Our analytical framework covered three categories: (1) the assessment level of research (policy, programme, organization, project, technology, or other); (2) the type of assessment method (conceptual, qualitative, or quantitative); and (3) the impact areas (economic, social, environmental, or sustainability). The analysis revealed that most papers (56%) addressed economic impacts, such as cost-effectiveness of research funding or macroeconomic effects. In total, 42% analysed social impacts, like food security or aspects of equity. Very few papers (2%) examined environmental impacts, such as climate effects or ecosystem change. Only one paper considered all three sustainability dimensions. We found a majority of papers assessing research impacts at the level of technologies, particularly for economic impacts. There was a tendency of preferring quantitative methods for economic impacts, and qualitative methods for social impacts. The most striking finding was the ‘blind eye’ towards environmental and sustainability implications in research impact assessments. Efforts have to be made to close this gap and to develop integrated research assessment approaches, such as those available for policy impact assessments.

中文翻译：

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农业研究影响评估－方法和影响领域回顾

研究在社会可持续发展的努力中可以发挥作用。对于农业研究而言尤其如此，因为农业处于众多可持续发展目标之间的纽带。但是，缺少将研究成果与可持续发展影响联系在一起的公认方法。我们对科学文献进行了回顾，以分析如何评估农业研究的影响以及涵盖哪些类型的影响。2008年至2016年共发表了171篇论文。我们的分析框架涵盖三类：（1）研究评估水平（政策，计划，组织，项目，技术或其他）；（2）评估方法的类型（概念，定性或定量）；（3）影响范围（经济，社会，环境或可持续性）。分析显示，大多数论文（56％）涉及经济影响，例如研究经费的成本效益或宏观经济影响。总共有42％的人分析了社会影响，例如粮食安全或公平方面。很少有论文（2％）研究了环境影响，例如气候影响或生态系统变化。只有一篇论文考虑了所有三个可持续性方面。我们发现大多数论文都在技术层面评估研究影响，尤其是对经济影响。有一种趋势倾向于采用定量方法来评估经济影响，而采用定性方法来评估社会影响。最引人注目的发现是对研究影响评估中的环境和可持续性影响“视而不见”。