Why Scientists Do Not Like EU Funding Policy? A Research Review on Performance Evaluation of EU Funding Activities

Purpose: The paper identifies and classifies the research studies conducted in the field of performance evaluation in European funding activities. Design/Methodology/Approach: The article tries to answer some questions, which areas of European funding activities are the focus of research in measuring their effectiveness, what are the most common studied key performance indicators (KPI) in chosen topic and what are their features based on the literature. In order to answer the stated questions literature review methodology was applied. The literature analysis identified the most studied areas of European policies. The classified KPIs are as standardised as possible and quite often they represent a macro perspective, which coincides with the represented areas of the analysed journals presented in the study. Findings: The study noticed that due to low number of classified studies and limited representation of policies, researchers should place more emphasis on the efficiency of funding activities. Additionally findings presented in the paper suggested a potential logic process of the selection of KPIs to evaluate public projects, programmes or policies. Practical implications: EU activities are one of the biggest funding initiatives in Europe and probably also in the World, it is important to study how to measure performance of EU projects, programmes, initiatives, politics for better future of all citizens.