Learning to invest better: Using ex post investment analysis on agri-environmental research and development

Public investment in agri-environmental, or natural resources management research, will be an ongoing challenge for evaluation. Two decades of triple bottom line research evaluation on publically funded portfolio investments are presented here as a useful example of research evaluation. These applications of the method to investments in a A$125 m (in present value terms) portfolio included 39 case studies incorporating 641 projects over two decades led by a government agency (Land & Water Australia). This portfolio-level analysis, with conservative assumptions and explicit attribution, shows that the reported returns to economic, environmental, and social values provide useful information. The program and project case studies have been published progressively to inform ex ante investments and this article provides a synthesis of that work. This article presents portfolio-level lessons from the conservative analysis of selected investments to show that for each dollar invested, >$5 of benefits were returned. The rate of return was 26%, making research investment in natural resource management a strongly performing investment. Despite the advances made using this method, there remain challenges in fully describing social and environmental outcomes. This method has now been applied to 15 other agencies investing >$441 m annually in Australian agri-environmental research and development. This portfolio evaluation of agri-environmental research and development is also a useful entry to the devilish details and a wealth of research evaluation knowledge. Copyright The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press.