Background and Legal Basis
Both the increasing importance of the changes in the policy context and the objectives of and the proposed level of investment in the EU’s RTD activities result to the need to further improve and strengthen the evaluation function in order to best meet the public requirements for increased transparency, accountability and cost-effectiveness.
The Commission is therefore bound, through the Financial Regulation (Articles 60 and 27) and its Implementing Rules , to perform an ex-post evaluation of the 6th FP research activities in line with the principle for Sound Financial Management.
As a consequence of this obligation, the legal base of the 7th Framework Programme for Research, Technological development and Demonstration (RTD) explicitly mandates that "Not later than 2010, the Commission shall carry out, with the assistance of external experts, an evidence-based interim evaluation of this Framework Programme and its specific programmes building upon the ex-post evaluation of the Sixth Framework Programme…" and clarifies that this "… independent ex-post programme evaluation would be undertaken 2 years after the end of FP6."
Evaluation report
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Evaluation report
[184 KB]
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Key findings and recommendations [42 KB]
Communication of the evaluation results
- Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council,
the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.
Ex-post evaluation of the ‘Information Society Technologies (IST)’ Thematic Priority in the Sixth Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration (RTD) COM (2008) 533
Press releases
- "Aho Report" on EU High-Tech Research: A Wake-up Call for
Innovation in Europe, says Commissioner Reding.
Europe has started doing better in high-tech research but still has a lot more to do, particularly to capitalise on the results. This is the conclusion of the independent expert report, chaired by former Finnish Prime Minister Esko Aho, that analysed the effectiveness of Information Society research under the EU's 6th Framework Programme for Research and Development. Although Europe has considerably improved its high-tech research, with the European Commission taking the lead in boosting Micro Computer and Nano-Electronic research, it now needs to move up a gear to bridge the innovation gap with other parts of the world. more
- Cut red tape to attract venture capital to cutting edge high-tech research,
Commission tells Parliament and Council.
The Commission today called on the Parliament and Council to support a new drive to cut red tape and allow greater flexibility to make European high-tech research more effective. It was responding to the 'Aho report', the most comprehensive evaluation of EU ICT research yet, looking beyond the management of research to evaluate its impact on innovation. The report highlighted that EU research could be of greater benefit for European competitiveness by involving and supporting high growth companies and providing better links between research and venture capital. The Commission, which has launched several initiatives to involve leading companies in research, is committed to making the information and communications technology (ICT) research it supports more effective in terms of delivering business opportunities. It is also launching a public consultation that will feed into proposals to this end in early 2009.. more
Dissemination of the evaluation results
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Presentation in the European Parliament: CLORA workshop [2 MB]
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Presentation at EUFORDIA conference in Prague [2 MB]
Background documents
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Terms of reference [758 KB]
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Panel of Independent experts [121 KB]
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Evaluation Synthesis Report [768 KB]
Additional information
For more information on this matter, please contact:
Anna KRZYZANOWSKA
Directorate General Information Society and Media
Lisbon Strategy and Policies for the Information Society
Evaluation and Monitoring
Tel no.: +32 2 298 72 46
Fax no.: +32 2 296 66 13
email: infso-c3 in the domain ec.europa.eu