Making monitoring and evaluation of innovation programmes a competitiveness tool - Brussels (Centre A. Borschette Room 1-D) - 5 July 2005

FINAL PROGRAMME AND PRESENTATIONS

9:30 - 9:40 Introduction to the workshop
Louis LENGRAND, LL&A, study team Coordinator - Download

9:40 - 10:00 Welcome address by the European Commission
Reinhardt BUSCHER, DG Enterprise, Head of Innovation Policy Development Unit

10:00 - 10:30 "Cultures of evaluation" of innovation policies and programmes in Europe
Alain QUEVREUX, ANRT, Study Team Member - Download

10:30 - 11:00 "Towards the next generation": evaluation principles and practices in support of innovation policy design and implementation
Ian MILES, University of Manchester, PREST, Study Team Member - Download

11:00 - 11:30 Coffee Break

11:30 - 13:00 - PANEL 1
Why evaluate, when and how? What are the opportunities and constraints of the impact assessment model?

Moderator: Louis LENGRAND, LL&A, Study Team Coordinator

13:00 - 14:30 Lunch

14:20 - 15:35 - PANEL 2
Innovation policy evaluation: the constraints to evaluation practitioners

Moderator: Paul CUNNINGHAM, University of Manchester, PREST, Study Team Member

15:35 - 16:00 Coffee Break

16:00 - 17:00 - PANEL 3
Innovation policy evaluation: the European perspective

Moderator: Reinhold ENQVIST, REIDEV, Study Team Member

17:00 - 17:45 - CONCLUDING ROUND-TABLE
Evaluation a key tool to deliver innovation driven competitiveness

Moderator: Louis LENGRAND, LL&A, Study Team Coordinator

Round Table Participants:

• John BARBER, Former Director of Technology Economics and Evaluation, UK Department of Trade and Industry, Former Chairman OECD Committee on Scientific and Technological Policy
• Markus MAURER, Deputy Director General of the Department of Legislative Impact Appraisal, Reduction of Bureaucracy, Evaluation, and Law, in the Ministry of Economics and Labour, Germany
• Theo ROELANDT, Director of the Strategy, Research and International Affairs Department, DG for enterprise and Innovation, Ministry of Economic Affairs, The Netherlands
• Peter STANOVNIK, Senior Researcher, Institute for Economic Research, Slovenia
• David WHITE, Director, Innovation Policy, DG Enterprise and Industry, European Commission
  
  

RATIONALE

The European Commission has been, since the Lisbon summit, focusing increasingly on putting innovation and competitiveness at the heart of EU's priorities.

Wim Kok's mid-term evaluation report and the recently published Innovation Scoreboards, have shown that the current levels of innovation and competitiveness in Europe are not sufficient. A shift in the current strategies to foster innovation is now highly recommended.

Evaluation in the field of Innovation is increasingly necessary

One particular requirement is the need to enhance the effectiveness and impact of publicly funded innovation support. Appropriate evaluation processes are thus required for examining the achievements of innovation programmes, initiatives and policies. These should feed into a learning process allowing continual improvement of innovation-oriented actions.

Evaluation in the field of Innovation is a complex process

But evaluation in the field of Innovation is a complex process, for several reasons.

First of all, innovation is a broad, systemic and subtle phenomenon. Impacts of innovation programmes and outcomes are even harder to measure than those of more limited research and development programmes.

Secondly, many policies that are not explicitly labelled innovation policies may facilitate the diffusion of innovation (others may even hinder innovation, or bias it in specific directions). Moreover, innovation is diverse and pervasive (see the Innovation Tomorrow report - Innovation papers No 28 European Commission DG Enterprise) and innovation is itself constantly changing (in how it is organised, what sorts of knowledge is used to create what sorts of products, processes or behaviours). While innovation is both a buzzword and a very real underpinning of entrepreneurship and competitiveness, the isolation and evaluation of the results of innovation programmes or projects can be very challenging.

Evaluation in the field of Innovation is a diverse process in Europe

Innovation policy is generally recognised to be vitally important, but few countries in Europe have developed an evaluation practice with respect to innovation policies and programmes. There are several practical and institutional obstacles that underpin this resistance. Also, evaluation is a sensitive process where psychological barriers are important. However, progress can and should be made, and the exchange of experience about good practice is a step in this direction. Enhancing the evaluation culture is a first step - and a major step - in facilitating the implementation of evaluation policies.

Evaluation in the field of Innovation needs to be strongly promoted

Establishing more of an evaluation culture is necessary to promote more systematic evaluation of innovation programmes - and to make sure that the lessons of evaluations are learned and built into policymaking. It is essential to raise the awareness of decision makers as to the rationale for, and benefits from, evaluation.

Building an evaluation culture does not simply mean that audits of programmes have to be undertaken on a regular basis.

The evaluation process has to become a learning process - one that helps align stakeholder interests and incentives, improves coordination of the actors of the innovation system, and increases the value added achieved from interventions into the innovation system.

This International Workshop: an integral part of this process and a central component of a study

This International Workshop is organised in the framework of a study carried out by a consortium (composed of LL&A, PREST, ANRT and Reidev) on behalf of the Innovation Policy Development Unit of DG Enterprise and Industry. The aims of the study are to identify, collect and analyse evaluation experiences and exercises of innovation programmes and agencies in the EU Member States and some associated countries.

This Study Team has worked closely with a High Level Working Group comprising 8 experts from innovation agencies and ministries which met three times in order to benchmark, validate the work and preliminary findings. The Group also provided significant information, guidelines, research pointers and supportive documents.

On the basis of various forms of investigation - review of available literature, in-depth analysis of 6 case studies (Finland, Hungary, Scotland, Germany, Spain, Walloon region), opinion surveys undertaken through an online questionnaire and phone interviews of stakeholders of the innovation policy community - the study team has identified several issues which need to be discussed with the innovation policy-making and support community.

The ultimate goal of this study is to lay the groundwork for a European Pilot Initiative. The objective of the initiative will be first to design guiding principles, methods and operational tools for an enhanced evaluation practice of innovation programmes as a step towards a sound governance of innovation. Second, the team will provide recommendations for implementation of this approach.

This International Workshop is an integral part of the study process: it should allow discussion of early drafts and proposed EC pilot initiative and provide inputs for the final deliverables.

In order to get value and tangible results, active involvement of, and inputs from, participants will be vital components. We look forward to welcoming you and your inputs.

Download :

Rationale and programme

Contact:
INNEVAL Workshop Secretariat
LL&A - 21 rue de la Pourvoierie 78000 Versailles (France)
Tel: +33 1 39 07 26 62 - Fax: +33 1 39 07 26 61 - Email: Inneval workshop