In recent decades, some EU Member States, particularly the Nordic countries, have invested in high-quality data infrastructures to capture the outcomes attributable to research and innovation (R&I) grants to businesses. While quantitative methods have become more and more sophisticated, a simultaneous interest in studying more qualitative, behavioural aspects can be observed.
This is the second of five reports that will be produced as the main deliverables of the MLE on Alignment and Interoperability of Research Programmes. It is concerned with the role that National Preconditions play for a more efficient and effective participation in the Joint Programming Process (JPP)1 including Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs) and other public-to-public partnerships (P2Ps).
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.
Reflecting the priority subjects mentioned by the Member States at the call for interest of July 2016, this first MLE on Open Science will address the national policies and practices relating to the following two issues: (1) Altmetrics, understood as alternative (i.e. non-traditional) metrics that cover not just citation of articles but also various forms of social media shares, web-downloads or any other measure of the qualities and impact of research outcomes; and (2) Incentives and rewards for researchers to engage in Open Science activities.
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.
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.
