Innovation is a must not only for individual companies, but increasingly also within European Union, its member states and regions. Innovation is substantially linked to growth and can greatly contribute to the welfare of citizens and to sustainability. Instruments and programmes to support innovation are therefore placed at all levels. But how do we know whether the best possible use of public money is achieved? The main focus of this conference is on the need to measure and improve the effectiveness of publicly funded programmes, in particular with regard to research and innovation.

The conference is organised under the PRO INNO Europe initiative of the European Commission.This initiative aims to become the focal point for innovation policy analysis, learning and development in Europe, with a view to learning from the best and contributing to the development of new and better innovation policies in Europe. The initiative contributes, inter alia, to the creation, consolidation and strengthening of an evaluation culture in Europe by collecting, analysing and disseminating good practices, methodologies, and background information regarding evaluation and impact assessments of innovation programmes.

Within the broader perspective of PRO INNO Europe, the conference provided policy makers, programme owners and managers as well as companies and innovation experts with concrete information about the state of the art of the evaluation and impact assessment of publicly funded programmes.

The conference programme included plenary sessions and parallel strands addressing methodological issues, good practices identified and ways to disseminate them. The conference also paved the way for improving transnational cooperation between national as well as regional research and innovation programmes and initiatives with a view to increasing their final impact on innovation.