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Retrospective evaluation of State aid rules

Funding for Research Development and Innovation

Client

European Commission

Year

2020


The state grants for research and development investment grew from 8.9 billion euros in 2014 to 11.27 billion euros in 2018. Our evaluation for the European Commission analyses the connection between this increase and the simplification of state aid regulations.

The investigation shows that the state funding to support Research Development and Innovation (R&D&I) evaluated is designed to support R&D&I activities in the EU, without distorting competition. In addition, we conducted interviews with around 170 experts from the areas of economy, research, and administration in the EU. “The regulatory framework conditions for R&D&I and its funding are fundamental to the competitiveness of the EU,” says Prognos Project Leader Dr Jan-Philipp Kramer. The state funding regulations were effective, efficient, and coherent in this matter. The investigation results also show that relevant markets and technology developments are taken into consideration.

Several of the interviewees pointed out the specific aspects that require improvement, such as, aid intensity, which is in part too low to meet the needs of global competition.

The current study is a retrospective evaluation of selected rules that regulate state funding to subsidise R&D&I, in accordance with the Union’s framework for state aid for the support of Research Development and Innovation (R&D&I-Framework) and the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER), that came into effect in July 2014.

The report, compiled by Prognos in collaboration with KPMG, focused on answering concrete questions on the specific state funding measures for R&D&I:

  • Investment subsidies for research infrastructure
  • Funding for innovation clusters
  • Innovation funding for SMEs
  • Funding for experimental development projects and funding for process and organisation innovation

Methodology

The analysis is made up of 168 semi-structured interviews, conducted with stakeholders from the target group of the Member State aid authorities, aid beneficiaries, non-aided businesses as well as industry and scientific associations in 18 Member States.

The Member States were included in the sample of the study based on geographical distribution and on the basis of different degrees of usage of the state R&D&I aid in the sample. Data collection was conducted via desk research, individual interviews, a computer-assisted telephone interview approach (CATI) as well as other research methods.

The evaluation (PDF, EU Commission website)

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Your contact at Prognos

Dr Jan-Philipp Kramer

Partner, Head of EU Services

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Prognos is one of the oldest economic research centres in Europe. Founded at the University of Basel, Prognos experts have been conducting research for a wide range of clients from the public and private sectors since 1959 – politically independent, scientifically sound.

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