Project results

Nine research programmes (interner link zu links) from seven countries and one international research initiative, representing both top-down research programmes (RTD programmes with a clear defined design and a correspondent financial framework, comprising management rules and criteria for the selection of projects) and bottom-up approaches (grassroots research initiatives that emerge through the motivation and engagement of single researchers or NGOs), were selected as empirical case studies for testing the AIRP-SD methodology.

The AIRP-SD project produced two main research results:

• a methodology for the evaluation of SD-oriented RTD programmes
  
  
• recommendations for the design of future SD-oriented RTD programmes
  
  

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• Policy relevance of results
  
  

Overall, the AIRP-SD project has contributed to advancing the state of the art of sustainability evaluation. The work of the project has been represented in conferences devoted to the evaluation of sustainability and will be the subject of a forthcoming book on the definition and evaluation of sustainability-oriented research and sustainability science. Therefore, the AIRP-SD project can be considered having extended and deepened the body of knowledge about current research in the European Research Area (ERA) that is oriented toward sustainable development.