The value of research: using the 'Impact Tool' to evaluate realised and anticipated benefits of the Cooperative Research Centre for Beef Genetic Technologies

Abstract

The Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Beef Genetic Technologies operated for its third successive 7-year term from July 2005 to June 2012. It developed new genetic and genomic technologies and non-genetic 'products' (practices, processes, tools and technologies) to improve profitability, productivity, animal welfare and responsible resource use of Australian beef businesses. In this paper we assess how well the third-term Beef CRC met its objectives, at the end of its funding period, using the 'Impact Tool' software package developed by the CRC Program of the Commonwealth Government. The 'Impact Tool' generates two commonly used measures of return on investment: the net present value (NPV) and the benefit : cost ratio (BCR). The NPV, the sum of discounted benefits minus the sum of discounted costs, was $233.2 m, when evaluated over the period 2005/06-2020/21. The BCR, the sum of discounted benefits divided by the sum of discounted costs, was 2.94, over the same period. Thus on both measures, investing in the Beef CRC is expected to have been profitable. We conclude by noting that the value of the 'Impact Tool' is not only for ex-ante and ex-post evaluation of the impacts of particular technologies, but it also provides a very effective tool for RD&E project planning.