Nikos Vogiatzis, Jorge-A. Sanchez-P., Vassilios Makios

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 1, Page 69 - 76

Corallia is a Unit of the Research and Innovation Centre Athena, under the auspices of the General Secretariat for Research and Technology, established in Greece for the management and development of Innovation Clusters. Corallia’s activities focus on knowledge-intensive and exports-oriented technology segments, where Greece has the capacity to build sustainable innovation ecosystems, thus effectively supporting Smart Specialisation strategies in those regions. In the last decade, Corallia has implemented successfully several milestone national development programmes for cluster development, utilising European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This paper describes the cluster development programme that Corallia managed in the 2000-2006 and 2007-2013 programming periods that were co-financed by ERDF via the National Operational Programmes of the 3rd and 4th Community Support Frameworks respectively.

Karolina Lipinska, Monika Radziszewska

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 1, Page 44 - 52

This article describes how local government in Pomorskie built on the existing regional key clusters strategy using a bottom-up approach to developing the smart specialisation strategy.The article outlines in detail the process through which smart specialisations were selected, which enabled the participation of numerous entities in the proposal submission and selection process, and the impact that can already be seen in terms of applications submitted under international and regional calls for proposals, as well as highlights some of the success factors identified by the region.

Xavier Le Den, Miguel Riviere, Franziska Lessmann, Martin Nesbit, Kamila Paquel, Andrea Illes

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 2, Page 134 - 146

This paper presents the findings of the ex-post evaluation of EU Cohesion Policy support to energy efficiency investment in public and residential buildings financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund during the 2007-2013 programming period. The programming period was largely a learning experience for both managing authorities and the European Commission when it came to energy efficiency interventions in public and residential buildings. The evaluation revealed that the quality of the interventions varied substantially across programmes, with a significant number of managing authorities providing an unclear rationale for the intervention and a weak link to the type of intervention supported, financing instruments used and indicators chosen. Accordingly, target setting and actual achievements of the interventions also varied substantially across programmes. Traceability and comparability of achievements across programmes was therefore limited. Nevertheless, the evaluators were able to derive a number of interesting findings and policy implications for the 2014-2020 funding period. Among them were the need to improve the quality of the monitoring systems, improve intervention design (clearer formulation of the rationale for support, clearer link from rationale to instruments and selection criteria), diversify the type of interventions supported and instruments used (i.e. to not only make use of grants for investments in building renovations), make more extensive use of energy efficiency audits (in order to better be able to measure progress) and ensure good inter-agency communication and peer-learning.

Massimo Florio, Elena Vallino, Silvia Vignetti

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 2, Page 99 - 110

This paper presents and discusses some of the results of the ex-post evaluation of the contribution of the European Regional Development Fund 2007-2013 programmes to SMEs growth and innovation. Implemented during a harsh economic crisis, the ERDF provided € 47.5 billion of SMEs support, representing 16 % of the total ERDF allocation during the 2007-2013 period. Programme strategies aimed more to cope with the contingent economic pressures and fall in employment levels than to address long-term objectives addressing structural barriers affecting target SMEs. The majority of policy instruments which were conceived, or further adjusted during the reprogramming phase, for generic SMEs support generated a diffuse stabilizing and anticyclical mechanism. Findings however show that the most effective strategies were represented by those more ambitious instruments that had a well specified logic intervention, focused objectives and selective targeting strategies.

Fiona Wishlade, Rona Michie, Giovanni Familiari, Peter Schneidewind, Andreas Resch

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 2, Page 111 - 119

The 2007-13 planning period saw a new and significant emphasis on the use of so-called ‘financial instruments’ as measures to implement Cohesion policy. This was justified by the Commission on the basis that such instruments are more sustainable than grants, that they can generate better quality projects and that they are a more efficient use of public funds. However, for many Member States financial instruments were a new approach to delivering Cohesion policy in 2007-13, and their increased use created significant challenges. In considering this experience, this article draws on the findings of the ex post evaluation of financial instruments for enterprise support under the ERDF and Cohesion Fund. It assesses the scale of support provided through co-financed financial instruments in 2007-13, considers the rationales of managing authorities opting to use financial instruments, outlines how financial instruments were implemented in practice and provides some initial indications of their effectiveness.