CORDIS Archive

Published Studies

Title: Supporting the monitoring and evaluation of innovation programmes Year of Publication: 2006 Contractors: Louis Lengrand & Associés (France) PREST (University of Manchester, United Kingdom) ANRT (France) REIDEVLtd Languages: EN

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Category: Innovation Policy

The study illustrates how evaluation exercises on innovation programmes and agencies are operated in different contexts, addressing the key-issues for a transnational policy learning process.
The main result is that only few countries have a well established culture of evaluation in Europe and that innovation policy evaluation is not a mature area of work across the EU.
The study concludes that improved evaluation practice should be an integral part of achieving the Lisbon objectives and that instruments and initiatives that can develop and diffuse such practice across the EU need to be fostered.

The study addresses the identification and analysis of evaluation/monitoring initiatives on innovation programmes and agencies, in view to provide a review of the existing practices in the EU. Aspects analysed include the level of development of a culture of evaluation in the country, the main challenges, barriers and obstacles for a further development of the learning process. The lines of work of the project, which was conducted within the framework of a series of meetings with a High Level Working Group, included:

• The establishment and analysis of a database of examples of innovation programme evaluations
• A set of case studies of evaluation in specific countries and regions
• Interviews with selected experts in the area, and a survey of a wider number of experts

The case studies suggested that three different cultures of evaluation can be identified. The most advanced cultures use evaluation as a central element in the development of their innovation policies (examples are Finland, Scotland, and Sweden). In some other countries and regions (Germany being a case in point) evaluations mainly focus on the analysis of innovation programmes design and delivery, the impact on policy design remaining limited. In a third set of cases (Hungary, Spain and the Walloon Region), evaluation is becoming recognised as important, but so far it has not been greatly developed or implemented.

The opinion surveys confirm that in experts' view innovation evaluation is not widely embedded in the EU yet and that only few countries have a well established culture of evaluation. Experts also consider innovation policy evaluation a less mature area of work compared to evaluation in the field of Research.

The study elaborates the draft terms of reference of a Pilot Initiative and a practical guide as practical tools aimed at supporting the development and diffusion of improved evaluation practice in the EU.

The results and conclusions of the study have been discussed in a workshop which took place in Brussels, gathering 70 participants from 22 countries.

Downloads:

• SMART INNOVATION: A Practical Guide to Evaluating Innovation Programmes
• Draft Terms of Reference for an EC Pilot Initiative
• Supporting the Monitoring and Evaluation of Innovation Programmes – Final Report




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