The Eurostars Joint Programme has succeeded in accelerating the growth and innovative outputs of R&D-performing SMEs. However, several aspects of governance and managerial implementation need to be improved. The expert group studied the Eurostars interim evaluation of 2010 and the uptake of its recommendations. In contrast to the interim evaluation, the expert group was able, due to the considerably higher numbers of applications, applicants and funded projects, to make quantitative calculations and carry out extensive econometric analyses. The results of the final evaluation provide evidence that Eurostars is relevant for the growth of R&D-performing SMEs in Europe. The employment growth rate of R&D-performing SMEs funded by Eurostars was nearly twice as high as that of applicant SMEs which were not funded. This can be causally attributed to Eurostars funding. Given the still relatively small number of completed projects, this estimate will become more precise in future. In addition, the market impact of Eurostars projects has not completely manifested itself yet. The programme has accelerated the development and roll-out of new and improved products, processes and services. The econometric evaluation established a positive and significant impact on the patent portfolio of funded firms relative to unfunded applicants. The programme has stimulated new cross-border collaborations that the members of the funded consortia intend to continue beyond the Eurostars funding period. At the same time, the final evaluation reveals the need for improvement in harmonising funding rules and synchronising national processes. The effectiveness of central governance, administration and operations also needs to be improved. National resources are still too scarce, though some countries have increased their Eurostars budgets significantly above the originally agreed levels. The maximum rate of funding for the same type of partners varies between countries. Insufficient resources in some of the consortia’s partner countries have resulted in the exclusion of selected projects from funding. With the increasing number of applications, the success rate - measured as share of eligible project proposals which were approved for funding - has fallen from 48% in 2008 to 20% in 2013. The time elapsed from submission deadline to evaluation, signing of grant and consortia agreements and activation of funding have gone down significantly, but is still too long and varies between partner countries, causing delays in starting projects. The High-Level Group has repeatedly discussed these issues, but so far failed to translate them into binding decisions and actions. The quality of the central evaluation of the projects, managed by the ESE, is good: however, better gender and geographical balance amongst technical experts and more competence in market knowledge are still needed. Moreover, national evaluations in parallel with the central evaluation still prevail in some countries. The virtual common pot works well and provides incentives to national governments to increase their budgets for Eurostars projects. The ESE’s Eurostars database, including information of the applicants, projects, and their progress and impact, contains errors and deficiencies preventing thorough impact analysis. The expert group is convinced that there is an urgent need to improve the information content as well as the quality of information included. The findings and results of the final evaluation have given rise to 28 recommendations, summarised below. Concerning the target group and scope of the programme, all R&D-performing SMEs need to be targeted, whether or not they have been involved in international collaborations before. The ESE should support successful Eurostars projects by providing links to the EUREKA network and to public and private financing instruments supporting follow-up development and commercialisation. Regarding governance, the High-Level Group’s decisions should be implemented, and this implementation should be monitored. National parallel application and evaluation needs to be abolished, and the transparency and feedback mechanisms of the evaluation improved. Concerning management and operations, time-spans from submission deadline to evaluation outcomes, signed grant and consortium agreements, and to activation of funding, must be synchronized and shortened to binding deadlines. The Eurostars database should be improved, based on re-designed application and reporting forms, in order to serve the purpose of assessing the impact of the programme on employment as well as R&D and innovation activities of the SMEs, and for information exchange with national project coordinators. Regarding funding, a commonly agreed baseline of harmonized funding rules needs to be agreed, providing the same type of partners with the same maximum rate of funding in each country, and allowing universities and public research organisations (PROs) to participate as partners instead of sub-contractors of SMEs. The results of this final evaluation should be used for the benefit of the Eurostars 2 Joint Programme, which has the potential to step up the delivery of results if increased national resources are provided.

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Relatório final de projecto internacional

EUROSTARS,Collaboration,Evaluation

• Economia e Gestão - Ciências Sociais