Supporting the monitoring and evaluation of innovation programmes, a study for DG Enterprise and Industry, Louis Lengrand and associés, January 2006.

This report on the monitoring and evaluation of innovation programmes was conducted at the request of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry. It illustrates how evaluation exercises on innovation programmes and agencies are operated in different contexts, addressing the key issues for a transnational policy learning process. It involves case studies of seven countries and regions.

The study identified three different cultures of innovation evaluation:

• The most advanced cultures (Finland, Scotland and Sweden) use evaluation as a central element in the development of their innovation policies;
• Germany is a case in point in the second group, where evaluations are used for analysis of programme design and delivery, but have little impact on policy design;
• The third group (Hungary, Spain and the Walloon region in Belgium) regard evaluation as being important, but are behind with its development and implementation.

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.

Supporting the monitoring and evaluation of innovation programmes - Final Report