The challenge

ILVO, the Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, is a reference in Belgium and abroad as an independent scientific research centre of the Flemish government. As part of its strategy evaluation, ILVO asked itself a double question, both important to evaluate the organisation’s current status and added value. In particular, ILVO asked:

• A strategic impact analysis of its activities, and this both in terms of its role in and contribution to major societal transitions and the knowledge transfer/spillovers of the cooperation with ILVO among its knowledge users (“external evaluation”);
• A strategy review with a specific focus on ILVO’s role and positioning in its innovation ecosystem (“internal review”).

The process & results

In response to ILVO’s request, IDEA Consult conducted an impact and strategy assessment in 3 modules:

• A preliminary study: this included a scoping of the assignment consisting of the focus of the strategy study (internal view) and the design of the evaluation model (external view). The basis for the preliminary study was document analysis and an exploratory interview with ILVO. Its outcome was discussed at the ILVO strategy 2-day event.
• The external impact evaluation: it mapped the knowledgeleverage of cooperation with ILVO among its knowledge users on the one hand, and the societal impact of ILVO in priority transition areas on the other:
  • To analyse ILVO’s knowledge leverage among its users, online surveys and follow-up interviews were conducted among organisations that collaborated with ILVO in the context of the ILVO Living Lab “Food Pilot” and in the Ornamental Plant Cultivation domain. This resulted in an impact report with insights and conclusions on the value of ILVO’s knowledge transfer among users in the Food Pilot and in the Ornamental Plant Cultivation domain, with a specific focus on the added value of cooperation with ILVO for its users.
  • To examine ILVO’s impact on the progression of key societal transitions, the IDEA Consult team conducted an internal interview round with experts from ILVO. This mapped ILVO’s contributions to the transitions towards sustainable fisheries and integrated land use, based on the UN SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) framework and validated transition models.
• The internal strategy evaluation: this included the strategic analysis of ILVO with a focus on its positioning in the ecosystem and the continued effect on ILVO’s organisational form. For this, the results of the impact evaluation, an additional document analysis, interviews with actors from the ecosystem and interviews with external experts from benchmark institutes were used. This module resulted in a strategic advice with 8 lines of force for more impact and a benchmark analysis, which were presented to the ILVO Management Team.