Implementation of the extended performance review of the Industrial Collective Research programme ('Industrielle Gemeinschaftsforschung - IGF')

The IGF programme is supported by the German Federation of Industrial Research Associations (AiF) as administrative assistant of the former German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Technology. The extended performance review (evaluation) checked whether the purpose of the programme, the support of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in research and development, was achieved by the promotion of the programme. The project had a distinctly accompanying and discourse-oriented character, so that learning experiences and recommendations for action were already implemented in the course of the evaluation. For example, the evaluation procedure was reformed with regard to the evaluation criteria. The evaluation focused on the procedural and organisational processes in the research associations as well as the functioning of the innovation networks. Overall, the structural change of the joint research was monitored and documented, and practice-oriented recommendations were derived.