Prioritizing stakeholders to boost collaborative R&I projects benefits: an analytic network process approach

Abstract

A methodology was developed to prioritize stakeholders of a collaborative research and innovation (R&I) project in the circular bioeconomy area, towards enhancing its benefits from a multi-perspective point of view. The concept of R&I project benefits was broken down into criteria, evaluating different attributes related to the project outputs and outcomes, to the project management processes, and to the social, environmental and economic dimensions. The devised methodology was based on a combination of the analytic network process multicriteria decision making method and the key benefit categories from the P5 standard for sustainability in project management. The P5 standard has been shown to adequately frame the benefits to stakeholders of R&I projects in the topic of circular bioeconomy. Key benefits identified by the experts relate to the categories "society and costumers"and "consumption". The following stakeholders should have priority in the development of the project stakeholder management plan: research team members, leaders at the consortium organizations, project management team members and environmental NGOs. Future research will include a longitudinal study of the perceived stakeholder and benefit categories priority over time.