Adoptability Planning Tool:
ADOPT

The Adoptability Planning Tool project team has developed a process and tool to systematise the application of essential knowledge about adoption of practice change so it can be routinely used in the planning of research, development and evaluation activities within the CRC.

The tool features a structured step-wise approach to evaluate and predict the likely level of adoption and diffusion of specific innovations by defined target populations. By integrating principles and understanding from across multiple disciplines, the project makes adoptability issues and considerations more readily available, understandable and applicable to researchers, extension agents and R&D managers.

To achieve these aims, the project worked closely with potential end users and played an active role in major CRC farming systems projects. During development, the project had the following objectives:

Objectives

• Develop an expert decision support tool to assist research professionals and others to predict and improve the adoption and diffusion of specific technologies
• Facilitate improved adoption strategies for agricultural and NRM technologies
• Collaborate with other FFI CRC projects to develop technology packages that will be as adoptable as possible.  

Activities

The first version of the adoptability tool was successfully developed by the multidisciplinary project team and was tested with FFI CRC project teams and through a partnership with the GRDC Grain & Graze 2 regional project development teams. It was tested on 40 pasture-related projects in collaboration with industry, agribusiness and R, D & E agency staff. A comprehensive evaluation of this process was conducted and reported upon. The results from this process highlighted the existing demand for such a tool and informed the development of the second version.

Now known as ADOPT (the Adoption and Diffusion Outcome Prediction Tool), it is being tested on Future Farm CRC projects and with a broad range of projects from other RDCs.  ADOPT can now be downloaded from the CSIRO web site.

For more information about this project email project leader, Dr Rick Llewellyn: rick.llewellyn@csiro.au, or research fellow Dr Geoff Kuehne: geoffkuehne@gmail.com.