The Programme

Member States and Administrations handling operational Programmes must ensure they have the necessary equipment to carry out the assessments by providing for the creation and collection of the necessary data and using the information provided by the monitoring and supervisory systems.

The Evaluation Plan (EP) is the main means of assessment organisation. Its general features were outlined in the NSRF for the Unified Regional Policy 2007-2013 and define the assessments to be undertaken, the governance structure, the modalities for selecting topics and questions and the necessary measures to guarantee the quality of the assessment procedure.

The EP provides learning techniques, methods for obtaining required information, decision support, orientation to policy procedures, and methods of divulgating results and evaluating assessment efficiency.

Each Administration, on the basis of the information required and priorities, may conduct several assessments simultaneously and entrust them to a different team of internal or external assessors.

For a complete and comprehensive view of the results and impact of research and innovation interventions, an evaluation of the policies, strategies and actions that have been implemented with the NOP for Research and Competitiveness 2007-2013 has been included in the Evaluation Plans (EPs) of the Unified Regional Policy.

The EP for the entire 2007-2013 programming period was presented to the Supervisory Committee on 7 May, 2008. It is a dynamic plan updated every year, based on the Programme's development and the identification of new requests for information. The EP issues specific reports concerning completed evaluation activities as well as those yet to be performed during the programming period. 

Most of the institutional and socio-economic partners have an important role in the EP by actively taking part in the selection of the topics and evaluation questions, thus supporting the person responsible for the EPs and the technical structure of its management.