Impact Evaluation of the Technology Fund Programme 2007-2013 in Galicia: Results, aid concentration and leakage of resources

The aim of this study is to evaluate the implementation and the impact in Galicia of the Operational Programme for the benefit of business, Research, Development & Innovation-Technology Fund 2007-2013, which was a unique instrument of innovation policies financed by the European Union Structural Funds and addressed to the Spanish Autonomous Regions of the European Union Convergence Objective. Through the proposed analysis, we identify the impact of this Multiannual Programme –which mobilised a significant volume of resources and whose execution extends until 2015– on the evolution of the Galician Innovation System. To this end, the different types of measures and actions financed and their impact on the main innovation indicators (capacity building, Research & Development expenditure, patent applications, Research & Development personnel, infrastructures, collaboration networks, etc.) are analysed, contrasting the objectives pursued and the results observed. Institutional and organisational aspects that affect the design, implementation and management of measures and their possible impact on their effects (leakage of resources, vertebration difficulties, concentration of innovative activities in a limited number of agents, etc.) are also analysed. The conclusions make it possible to formulate recommendations for the design and implementation in the territory of other Research & Development & Innovation policies.