This report summarises the work and lessons learnt by the Mutual Learning Exercise (MLE) on Evaluation of Complex Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Programmes in STI. MLE is a project-based learning process whereby participating countries, assisted by a small group of experts, jointly examine a challenge-driven question in more detail. Belgium/Flanders, Bulgaria, Norway, and Sweden were the participant countries in this exercise.
The 'Policy Support Facility' (PSF) was set up by the Directorate-General for Research & Innovation (RTD) of the European Commission under the European Framework Programme for Research and Innovation 'Horizon 2020', in order to support Member States and associated countries in designing, implementing and evaluating reforms of the national science, technology and innovation systems.
The purpose of the MLE on innovation-enhancing procurement is to set up an EU knowledge-sharing service on innovation-enhancing procurement, encouraging mutual-learning, identifying good practices and providing advice in the field. The MLE aims to support Member States in designing, implementing and/or evaluating different policy instruments in relation to innovation-enhancing procurement.
Differences exist across EU Member States with regard to the administration and control of the R&D tax incentives systems, notably in relation to the use of R&D definitions (stemming from e.g. Frascati manual or EU block exemption regulation), the interpretation/implementation of those definitions, the eligibility of costs, etc. This MLE was an opportunity to investigate those various topics which so far had not been discussed at this level of details in any other forum and to learn from each other on possible approaches to tackle those issues.
Performance-based Research Funding Systems (PRFS) are one of the mechanisms through which countries try to increase the performance of their public sector research systems. The nature of these systems – based on peer reviews, metrics or a combination of both – varies considerably among countries. The MLE will provide a learning opportunity for countries willing to better understand the advantages and drawbacks of various options, improve ongoing PRFS and deepen the assessments of the impact of different systems.
This MLE addressed the issue of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) which are strategic (often virtual) centres for promoting sector- or challenge-based research involving multiple partners and promoting public-private collaboration in STI. The project allowed for the exchange on the ways in which participating (and outside) countries have addressed the evaluation of such PPPs. Evaluation data that exists on the various types of PPPs provided vitally important piece of information for the exercise.
Research and Innovation (R&I) grants remain one of the cornerstones of governments’ efforts to promote business R&I in Europe. The purpose of this MLE was to facilitate the exchange of views and experiences between volunteering Member States on the evaluation of business R&D grant schemes, taking into account the specific contexts in which these evaluations take place.
The Modus Operandi defines the scope, the objectives, envisaged outcomes and the preliminary time schedule of the MLE. It also describes the working approach and methodology the group will follow as well as the distribution of work of all participants.
With a view to improve efficiency of public funding in research and addressing major societal challenges, Member States have identified the need to improve the alignment and interoperability of their national programmes. Building on the Lund Declaration, the ERAC Joint Programming Group (GPC) has launched an MLE to address the need to foster national coordination by looking at national preconditions for participation in JPP (Joint Programming Process) / JPI (Joint Programming Initiatives), national governance structures and communication flows and visibility.
Research performance based funding is used by most EU Member States to increase the performance of their public research system. This report analyses the different nature of systems in EU Member States, selected associated and third countries. It aims to inform Member States which are in a process of mutual learning to improve the design of their research funding allocation mechanisms.
