Evaluation of Government Funding in RTDI from a Systems Perspective in Austria. Reports 1 to 9

In the spring of 2008, WIFO, KMU Forschung Austria, Prognos AG in Germany and convelop were jointly commissioned by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth to perform a systems evaluation of the country's research promotion and funding activities. The mandate covered three levels: 1. The framework conditions: the framework conditions are those policies which influence the performance of the innovation system as a whole, positively or negatively, as opposed to policies which effect to the inner core of research and innovation. Examples of such policy areas are product market regulations, tax laws and university organisation. Part of policy decisions at this level are the strategic governance structures of the innovation system in a narrow sense which are analysed, as well as the interactions between the strategic and the operational level of the governance of the innovation system (Reports 1 to 3). 2. Instruments of innovation policy: This level analyses indirect, direct and institutional funding of innovation activities in three separate studies. They describe the different ways of funding and assess their adequacy and effectiveness. The goals of this level of mandate are mainly to cover the different funding instruments as well as the satisfaction and the behaviour of the target groups (Reports 4 to 7). 3. Systemic interaction: In the first stage of this level, the authors describe the requirements for a coherent system of research and innovation funding which is compatible with the incentives of the institutions and firms funded. In the second stage, the operational relationship between the institutions and the actors as well as the coherence of the instrument mix is analysed: the interaction between direct and indirect R&D promotion (Report 8 and 9).