Resume of Assignment Aims. The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (2007 - 2013) ‘EIP’ is one of the three ‘pillars’ of Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). The CIP’s overarching aim is ‘to contribute to the enhancement of competitiveness and innovation capacity in the EU, the advancement of the knowledge society, and sustainable development based on balanced economic growth’. A significant part of the CIP consists of encouraging the competitiveness of European enterprises, especially SMEs. Through the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme, the European Commission aims to support entrepreneurship and innovation and to promote the development and growth of SMEs across the EU. This document sets out the findings and recommendations of the Final Evaluation of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (2007 - 2013). As will be seen, the evaluation exercise as a whole builds substantially on earlier stages in the evaluation cycle, notably the initial impact assessment that accompanied the Commission’s proposal for a Decision on the CIP and the interim evaluations of the EIP and the CIP, completed in 2009 and 2010. These documents set out certain expectations about the Programme and commented on its early implementation. The current exercise has aimed more to assess the extent to which, at this stage when the Programme still has several years to run, the expectations are being realised. The basic starting point has been in the Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the CIP1, particularly taking into account the specific provisions in this document relating to evaluation of the Programme. With reference to these provisions, the overall aims of this assignment have been : to evaluate, with respect to the EIP “issues such as relevance, coherence and synergies, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, utility and, where possible and appropriate, distribution of funding with regard to sectors” (article 8.2 of CIP Decision). More particularly, the study has aimed to: Follow-up on the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the Interim Evaluation of the EIP and of the Interim Evaluation of the CIP; identify, test and apply methodologies for evaluating (both qualitatively and quantitatively) those issues; analyse and compare the data collected, and draw substantiated conclusions;
Resume of Assignment Aims. The overall aims set for this assignment were to: • Analyse the quality of the objectives and indicators in DG Enterprise & Industry's Management Plan • Provide conclusions on the present quality of the DG's objectives and indicators • Make recommendations on the design of the objectives and indicators and their possible improvement, taking account of the extent to which they provide an accurate and balanced picture of the DG's activities. Specifically the study has aimed to : • identify, test and apply relevant methodologies for evaluating the quality of the objectives and indicators, taking account of the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely) and RACER criteria (relevant, accepted, credible, easy and robust), and the extent to which the objectives and indicators provide an accurate and balanced picture of the DG's activities; • analyse and compare the data collected, and draw substantiated conclusions; • provide relevant, realistic and impartial recommendations aiming to improve/adjust the objectives and indicators. The evaluation of the objectives and indicators in DG ENTR’s Management Plan (MP) has taken place within the context of an established evaluation framework. A number of common evaluation questions were defined in the Terms of Reference relating to the relevance and effectiveness of indicators. These included the following:
Resume of Assignment Aims. The overall aims of this assignment have been to: • Analyse the use of indicators within the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (EIP) managed by DG Enterprise and Industry, DG Economic and Financial Affairs and DG Environment. • Assess the use of indicators in respect of large ‘projects’ (Financial instruments, Enterprise Europe Network, Innovation measures, eco-innovation) and also smaller-scale ‘projects’ (e.g. IPR helpdesk, tourism, CSR, SME week, Enterprise Awards, eSkills, eBSN, standardisation, etc). • Draw conclusions and recommendations in relation to what types of indicators are most effective and suggest improvements with regard to strengthening the quality and robustness of existing indicators as well as improving the design of indicators in future. The evaluation has been carried out within the context of an established evaluation framework. A number of common evaluation questions were defined in the terms of reference relating to the relevance and effectiveness of indicators. These include the following: • To what extent are the EIP indicators pertinent to the issues they were designed to address? • How can the EIP indicators be improved? • How can the reporting on indicators be organised and improved? • What would be an appropriate set/framework of indicators that would allow a comprehensive and complete overview of the achievements under the EIP? • What is the set of instruments needed to collect information on indicators corresponding to the different EIP measures? These questions are addressed systematically and a coherent overall indicator framework is proposed.
