Evaluation of innovation activities – Guidance on methods and practices

Summary:

This study is one element of a review of evaluation practice undertaken by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Region Policy (DG REGIO). Roughly a quarter of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) support is spent on the ‘promotion of innovation’ during the 2007-13 period. Hence, the national and regional ERDF Managing Authorities (MAs) need to enhance their capacity and know-how in order to apply the best available methods to evaluate the results of these innovation measures. In order to select the appropriate evaluation questions and manage effectively an evaluation, the officials in MA need to understand the methodological challenges of evaluating specific types of innovation measures. Indeed, a tailored approach to evaluation design, by selecting appropriate combinations of methods to assess the intended and actual results of specific types of interventions, is a key to improved policy learning. Equally, improving the quality of evaluations of innovation support will contribute to the future design of more effective policy interventions.