Title: The evaluation of big R&D projects: A comparison between the Brite Euram projects and the ESA space projects

Authors: Laurent Bach, Patrick Cohendet, Marc-Jacques Ledoux

Addresses: Bureau d'Economie Theorique et Appliquee, UA 1237 CNRS, 38, Bd d'Anvers, F-67070 Strasbourg Cedex, France. ' Bureau d'Economie Theorique et Appliquee, UA 1237 CNRS, 38, Bd d'Anvers, F-67070 Strasbourg Cedex, France. ' Bureau d'Economie Theorique et Appliquee, UA 1237 CNRS, 38, Bd d'Anvers, F-67070 Strasbourg Cedex, France

Abstract: The central question in any evaluation of a large public R&D programme is the assessment of the level of coherence attained by the global organisational design set-up to fulfill the programme|s objectives. The evaluation process should then investigate the coupling between, on the one hand, the ways public action is defined and performed (definition of objectives, modes of monitoring, coordination and control, procurement policy) and, on the other, the ways private bodies organize themselves in R&D consortia and are stimulated by the programme. One way to perform this kind of evaluation is to clearly define and evaluate the economic effects gained by the participants from their involvement in one given programme, and then compare these results to the objectives and organisational design of this programme. This methodological scheme is applied to the evaluation of the EEC Brite/Euram programme and of the ESA space programme, which can be considered as two archetypes of public R&D programmes.

Keywords: economic effects; R&D evaluation; public R&D programmes; research consortia; project objectives; organisational design; Brite Euram; ESA; European Space Agency.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.1995.025641

International Journal of Technology Management, 1995 Vol.10 No.4/5/6, pp.525 - 556

Published online: 23 May 2009 *

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