Projects

The project involved a comparative assessment of support structures for attracting EU funding in Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Emilia Romagna (Italy), and Nordrhein Westfalen (Germany). Against a backdrop of declining receipts for Scotland from EU Structural Funds, the question is whether Scotland could better exploit some of the other sources of EU funding, notably: the EU Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP); the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP); the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP); Trans-European Networks (TEN-T and TEN-E); and the Community Initiative, formerly known as Interreg, which in 2007-13 is part of the new Territorial Cooperation Objective.

The project comprised the ex ante evaluation of the IPA Operational Programmes (OPs) for Environment, Transport, Regional Competitiveness and Human Resource Development for Croatia (2007-09). The study involved stablishing the evaluation frameworks, assessing each of the programmes and critically evaluating the final programme drafts.

The project involved research on the impact and added value of EU Cohesion policy in the period up to 2007 and assessed the financial and strategic shifts in Cohesion policy arising from the Council decision and Interinstitutional Agreement in 2005-06, with a view to identifying the key changes and implications for added value.

The project was part of the study 'W.IN.D. - Women In Development', which examined the identification and dissemination of effective ways to promote gender equality in local economic development. EPRC research involved elaborating a case study on Scotland to identify and analyse: (i) practical experiences with strategies to support the participation of women in local development processes, and (ii) practical experiences with strategies to support the introduction of the principle of gender mainstreaming into local development processes.

The project contributed to the 2007 OECD Territorial Review on Norway by providing an assessment of regional policy in Norway. This included three components: regional policy, district policy and periphery policy.

The project involved research on the operation and impacts of the main Structural Funds programmes (excluding Community Initiatives) in Scotland in the period 1994-2006. The specific objectives were: to assess the overall effects of the 1994-99 and 2000-06 programmes; (b) to provide detailed analyses of a small number of Structural Funds projects; and (c) to identify examples of good practice and value-for-money.

The project involved research in support of the drafting of the Operational Programme for the Atlantic Area. The study provided a synthesis of the results of interviews carried out as part of the elaboration of the new Atlantic Area Objective 3 programme. The interview questions covered the relevance and value of the Programme’s proposed Priorities, objectives and activities as well as issues arising from the practical implementation of the Programme (cooperation, participation, communication, publicity etc.)

The project involved research and policy advice on a government policy paper ‘The Territorial State and Perspectives of the European Union’ elaborated by the Coming Presidencies Group

The project involved research to inform a strategic approach to the Ireland, Northern Ireland and Western Scotland Cross-Border Territorial Cooperation Programme 2007-2013’ on behalf of Scottish Programme Partners. The aim of the study was to suggest models that would maximise awareness of, and access to, the Cross- Border Programme.

The project comprised the ex ante evaluation of the Northern Periphery Programme (NPP) 2007-2013 for the NPP Managing Authority. Objectives The aim of the ex ante evaluation was to provide an external perspective on the preparation of the new Programme with a view to improving and strengthening the final quality of the Programme and optimising the allocation of resources. The objectives were: to appraise the socio-economic analysis and the relevance of the strategy to the needs identified; to evaluate the rationale of the strategy and its consistency; to appraise the internal and external coherence of the strategy; to evaluate the expected results and impacts; and to appraise the proposed implementation system. The evaluation has been undertaken, as recommended by DG REGIO, through ‘an iterative and interactive process’.