Tender for a study on evaluating innovation activities: methods and practices The European Commission has issued a tender for a study on evaluating innovation activities: methods and practices. One-quarter of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) support is devoted to the promotion of innovation. Evaluate the results of this support requires an in... The European Commission has issued a tender for a study on evaluating innovation activities: methods and practices. One-quarter of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) support is devoted to the promotion of innovation. Evaluate the results of this support requires an increasing use of methods capable of assessing the different results expected and sometimes a combination of methods needs to be used. To this end, the Directorate-General for Regional Policy (DG REGIO) wishes to launch a study on methods applied to evaluating innovation activities supported by the ERDF. The specific objectives of the project are to provide a state-of-the-art evaluation of innovation in Member States, provide an analysis of the advantages and limits of available methodologies for assessing different kinds of innovation activities, conduct 15 case studies on good quality evaluations, and draft guidance for managing authorities to support their evaluation activities. This study will support the work of a network of Member States willing to invest in improving the quality of their evaluations through the use of these methods and complement the work of an expert network which gathers evaluation evidence and practices throughout the EU. It will also complement the results of two counterfactual impact evaluations on enterprise support and research grants launched by DG REGIO in 2010. The results of these three different initiatives will feed into the guidance on evaluation that DG REGIO will issue to prepare the next programming period for cohesion policy and a website which provides guidance on the evaluation of socio-economic development.For further information, please contact: European Commission Directorate-General for Regional Policy REGIO.C. attention: Mrs Kazlauskiene, Director CSM1 4/123 1049 Brussels Belgium E-mail: regio-directeur-c@ec.europa.eu To see the full details of the call, please consult: OJ No S164 of 25 August 2010
