Conceptual and practical problems of evaluation of international R&I policies

Abstract

This article discusses major conceptual and practical problems of evaluating internationally oriented R&I strategies and policies of a number of European Member States. The article, however, is not based on an originally exercised evaluation study but systematises and summarises results from a so-called Mutual Learning Exercise, which has been implemented under the Horizon 2020 Policy Support Facility. The findings deal with the complexity of R&I internationalisation strategies and their specific policies and support schemes, and in particular the difficulty in conceptually approaching them in evaluative ways due to various factors. These include shortcomings in the logic and design of the R&I internationalisation strategies, the identified gap between the high-level internationalisation objectives and the specific policies as well as practical issues concerning data and indicators.