Criteria Criteria and their Measures Criteria Priority setting criteria provide indicators of the contribution of a set of research alternatives to the objectives of the research organization. They are supported by measures which credibly discriminate the potential contribution of research alternatives. The primary goal of agricultural research is most often to improve the welfare of the country's citizens. Since agricultural research resources are limited, they must be allocated to generate the largest possible increase in the welfare of citizens, both agricultural producers and consumers. The efficiency criterion usually assumes the monetary value of research benefits to yield equivalent social welfare benefits to all producer and consumer groups.
Most people agree that society has a moral imperative to address equity objectives.
However, agricultural research is often a weak mechanism for modifying the distribution of welfare in a society. A useful equity criterion must explicitly recognize equity as a tradeoff with the efficiency criteria. If no tradeoff is involved in differentially targeting a specific group, there is no need to use an equity criterion. The sustainability criterion examines the contribution of research to objectives related to the protection of the resource base for future use. Since current agricultural production almost always affects the resource base and potential future production, sustainability criteria often embed a moral question of how society should trade-off present benefits and potential future benefits.