ACT-NET is situated in the European social sector. It is a typical practice-research project. The scientific outputs should not only be restricted to scientific reports but should also lead to an improvement of self-evaluation instruments and approaches for the actors in the field.

From the beginning the research-practice project faced the challenge to find develop theory and practical solutions for certain contradictory targets:

• A transferable approach should be developed to describe and evaluate processes that are purely individual and cannot be standardised.
• Consequently, the outputs should be flexible (to adapt to different groups) but at the same time transferable,
• The outputs should show positive effects (“extra value”) for individual organisations but should be at the same time comparable,
• They should be usable in practice and somewhat easy to handle (in the field), and at the same time delivering new theory that could be fed in European research.

The scientific ACT-NET report attached in this website section

• begins with a theoretical input on definitions and concepts of “informal learning”
• describes the research methodology and the research design
• presents ten case studies, one of each partner country
• evaluates the informal learning micro-projects and the feasibility of the LEVEL5 approach and the experiences.