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.
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.
The country profiles aim to provide an operational tool for stakeholders and policy-makers to support the framing of research and innovation (R&I) policies and to facilitate the monitoring of performance, on the basis of a holistic economic and indicator-based analysis.
The European Semester starts with the Commission's Annual Growth Survey (AGS), which outlines general economic priorities for the EU. In 2015, the focus of the AGS was on boosting investment, accelerating structural reforms and pursuing responsible growth-friendly fiscal consolidation. In line with those priorities, in February the Commission publishes a series of Country Reports presenting an assessment of economic and social developments and challenges in different areas, including research and innovation.