PLENARY SESSION III

R&D programmes are not the only way to foster innovation. Other means of support within the European innovation policy system are financial instruments, such as R&D loans or tax reductions. Further, Structural Funds are also expected to have a substantial impact on socio-economic innovation. In this session, approaches and practices of impact measurement and management will be compared across these three areas of innovation policy.

Asterios Chatziparadeisis, Ministry of Development, Greece
Impact of Structural Funds on Innovation
Jacques van der Meer, European Investment Bank, Luxembourg
Assessing the Impacts of Financial Instruments
Michel Poireau, European Commission, DG Research
The Role of RTD Framework Programme in Stimulating Innovation in Europe

Moderation: Jörg-Michael Thielges, SIB Berlin Consulting, Germany

11.00am – 11.30am:
Coffee Break

11.30am - 12.45pm: PARALLEL STRANDS

The core problem of impact assessment is the measurement of the impact itself: has technological development been stimulated? Has there been any successful economic exploitation? Accountability – quantitative or qualitative, broad or specific – is of increasing importance. In this strand ways to improve the accountability of R&D programmes will be highlighted. Several examples of indicator development and usage are presented and practical experiences will be introduced to ease mutual learning from international experience.

Isabelle Collins, Technopolis Ltd., UK
Impact Indicators and Impact Assessment: Experience from IST WING Evaluation
Bernard Bobe, Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris (ParisTech), France
Experience from Impact Assessment of EUREKA Programmes
Krzysztof Gulda, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Poland
Designing Programmes and Evaluation and their Role for Accountability of Innovation Impacts

Moderation: Michael vom Baur, Aker Yards ASA, Norway

Impact assessment and evaluation are demanding tasks. It is not easy to find ways to implement reliable and suitable instruments for programme management. In this strand an overview of good impact assessment practice in Europe will be presented. Case studies of advanced programme management design will be stressed out.

Torbjörn Winqvist, Vinnova, Sweden
Impact of R&D Seen in a Long-term Perspective
Markus Koskenlinna, TEKES, Finland
Impact Analysis in Tekes
Stephen Campbell, NIST, USA
Lessons from Impact Assessments of the Former U.S. Advanced Technology Program

Moderation: Yannis Caloghirou, National Technical University of Athens, Greece

Innovation agencies have adopted the concepts of additionality and EFQM Excellence^© to functional methodologies for the improvement of innovation initiatives. Both concepts utilise peer review and consulting, designed to support the agency and programme management. While the additionality approach utilises a proprietary reference model for technology support programmes, the IMQ Net approach is based on the generic EFQM^© Model. Both approaches will be presented to enable an assessment of the benefit potential of their use.

Peter Hahn, VDI/VDE-IT, Germany
IMQ-NET
Kjell-Håkan Närfelt, Vinnova, Sweden
TAFTIE Task Force on Additionality: Making Agencies Make a Difference

Moderation: Gerd Meier zu Köcker, VDI/VDE-IT, Germany

12.45pm – 2.15pm:
Lunch Break

PLENARY SESSION IV

Challenges for the Assessment of the Impact of Public R&D on Innovation
Our society faces major challenges in health, education, environment, and livelihoods. Europe shares in the challenges and can contribute its innovative potential to address them. Publicly funded R&D plays a major role in finding solutions. However, funds for R&D seem to be limited in the light of given challenges and a significant increase of their effectiveness and efficiency is needed. Maximum innovation impact includes contributing to rising living standards and better quality of life for an increasing share of Europeans and their world neighbours. How can the research programs of affluent countries be oriented, managed, and evaluated so that they contribute to both economic and social sustainability, at home and abroad?

During the final Round Table Discussion the participants will debate about the role of innovation policy in respect to the innovation impact. The experiences presented during the conference implicate also transferable lessons for policy action plans. The key question in this session will be to identify policy relevant solutions.

John van den Elst, Philips Applied Technologies, The Netherlands
Susan Cozzens, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Isabel Busom, University of Barcelona, Spain
Yannis Caloghirou, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Michel Poireau, European Commission, DG Research
Kazuyuki Motohashi, University of Tokyo, Japan

Moderation: Nicholas S. Vonortas, George Washington University, USA and  Athens University of Economic and Business, Greece

Pierre Vigier, European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry

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