News archive - EVAL-INNO final conference successfully organized in Vienna!

On 25-26th March 2014 the EVAL-INNO partnership successfully organized the project's concluding conference, presenting the results achieved and its potential future use. The event was held in Vienna at the premises of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy. The event gathered a consistent number of RTDI evaluation stakeholder from the South-East Europe Region, like Ministries in charge of RTDI evaluation, awarding authorities, evaluation societies, evaluators and scholars skilled in the field. The participants were informed about the current state of the art in RTDI evaluation and the activities of EVAL-INNO. In a further step, the framework for future cooperation in the domain in SEE was proposed and discussed.

The pre-session on 25th March gathered the representatives of five SEE Evaluation societies and other initiatives coordinating RTDI evaluation in an open dialogue. It focused on the experience gained across policy fields in the evaluation domain. Particular emphasis was given to the RTDI evaluation and its national and regional relevance. Moreover, synergies with the EVAL-INNO activities were defined to enable cross-fertilization. The evaluation societies and initiatives from Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, Moldova and Austria shared their experiences on national and international level and discussed about future cooperation in this field. Important issues have been tackled, such as the role of evaluation in nowadays RTDI culture and the most appropriate educational path for future evaluators.

The core event started with a presentation by Mr. Peter Fisch on the function(ing) of evaluation in RTDI policy making and the perspectives for SEE. Being a former head of unit for 'Evaluation' at the DG Research and Innovation, Mr. Fisch provided an insight in the perspective of the European Commission. The partners of EVAL-INNO presented the main results achieved within the project: the RTDI Evaluation Standards; the Capacity building activities in the EVAL-INNO trainings; the Pilot Programme evaluations and Pilot Benchmarking in EVAL-INNO respectively the learning from the pilot activities and the transferability of the concept; and finally the EVAL-INNO online platform. The presentations raised a keen interest by the present stakeholders and a stimulating discussion followed.

The first day finished with a joint session, which was set up as a structured information exchange in a well proved face-to-face setting. More than 25 exchange sessions were developed and the feedback was according to participants highly satisfactory. It was perceived as a rare chance to address the experienced challenges linked to evaluation in the RTDI domain.

The second day of the event was opened by a presentation by Michael Dinges from the Austrian Institute of Technology, who presented the EU member countries evaluation practice that was assessed in the INNO-Appraisal project. Lena Tsipouri from the project partner National and Kapodistrian University of Athens introduced the key topic of the day, namely the current and future RTDI evaluation culture in the SEE. A vital discussion among involved stakeholders followed. Martin Felix Gajdusek from the LP ZSI focused the session on the way forward in SEE. He presented a set of action points for a regional RTDI platform, which include future joint activity fields: both regional and important national joint actions.

A panel of SEE countries including a wide range of representatives from ministries, national agencies, and prospective tendering authorities, evaluation societies and other important RTDI stakeholders. The key messages expressed were for the majority in line: the EVAL-INNO was a highly appreciated first step towards the establishment of joint RTDI evaluation culture in the SEE region. The concept for sustainable ownership in the region in future was presented.
At the end of the two-day conference the participants endorsed a joint statement on future actions in the RTDI evaluation field. A set of key-challenges are listed as the starting point for future joint activities of the authorities in the region and the professionals contributing to evaluations. The communiqué includes as well important steps to be realised by the authorities responsible for research, technology, and innovation policy in the countries of the South East Europe region.

In the name of the EVAL-INNO partnership the Lead partner, the Centre for Social Innovation, would like to thank all participants for their active contribution and expresses its sincere thanks to all organisations involved in the preparation.