Ireland-Wales Programme Mid-Term Evaluation

Descriptions

The Ireland-Wales cross border programme is a Territorial Cooperation programme funded by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This programme links the West coast of Wales and the East coast of Ireland. The aim of territorial cooperation programmes is to support collaboration, encourage knowledge transfer and cooperation on identifying and providing solutions to common challenges.The Programme area has a population of approximately 4 million people across ten NUTS III regions. These are Dublin, Mid-East, South East and South West in Ireland and the Isle of Anglesey, Gwynedd, Conwy & Denbighshire, South West Wales, Swansea and Flintshire & Wrexham in Wales.The Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO), part of the Welsh Government, is the managing authority for the programme, in partnership with the Southern Regional Assembly (SRA) and the Department for Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) in Ireland.The Programme is supporting projects with partners based in both Ireland and Wales, focussing on activities across three key objectives in three distinct policy areas:Priority Axis 1 – Cross Border Innovation: Specific Objective 1 - To increase the intensity of knowledge transfer collaborations involving research organisations and SMEs in line with the shared priorities of the smart specialisation strategiesPriority Axis 2 – Adaptation to Climate Change: Specific Objective 2 - To increase capacity and knowledge of Climate Change adaptation for the Irish sea and coastal communitiesPriority Axis 3 – Cultural and Natural Resources and Heritage: Specific Objective 3 - To sustainably realise the potential of natural and cultural assets in increasing visitor numbers to coastal communities in the Programme areaEach Specific Objective has a result indicator associated with it. A ‘Result Indicator’ is intended to represent the change sought by the Specific Objective. Unlike result indicators in previous programmes, ERDF result indicators in the 2014-2020 period must reflect the change desired for the entire programme area and not only for those directly assisted by the programme. The result indicators are set out below:Specific Objective 1 Result Indicator: Levels of investment in R&D and innovation arising from cross-border collaboration in shared priorities as specified in smart specialisation strategiesSpecific Objective 2 Result Indicator: Levels of knowledge of adaptation to climate change amongst communities and businessesSpecific Objective 3 Result Indicator: Total number of overseas visitors to the coastal communities of the Programme areaData for the result indicator for Specific Objective 3 can be calculated from existing statistics from Failte Ireland and the Welsh Government. When developing the programme it was not possible to identify suitable existing statistics for Specific Objectives 1 and 2 so some bespoke survey work was commissioned in late 2015 to collect baseline data for the result indicators developed for these Specific Objectives. See Annex 1 for more information on this work. We are required to report on progress against the result indicators in the 2018 Annual Implementation Report that needs to be submitted to the European Commission by 30 June 2019.This evaluation will need to collect data to enable us to report against the result indicators for Specific Objectives 1 and 2. As well as this, the evaluation should analyse programme monitoring data as well as other data collected through this evaluation (e.g. from qualitative research with programme and project staff, stakeholders and beneficiaries), along with any other data on trends which may have a bearing on the result indicators to contextualise the result indicator data, i.e. to investigate whether any of the interventions funded by the Programme have contributed to changes recorded by the result indicators for Specific Objectives 1, 2 and 3.Although reporting against the result indicators is an important aspect of the research, it should be noted that this is not the sole purpose of the mid-term evaluation. There is a wealth of potential programme benefits not covered by the result indicators which should be investigated in this evaluation. This may include examples of good practice, or trialling new innovative process or solutions to problems.The total programme value is €100 million (£83m). So far 12 projects have been approved, with €43 million of the funding already committed (December 2017).The Programme Monitoring Committee (PMC) provides a strategic overview for the Ireland-Wales programme. The Committee’s role is to examine issues which affect the programme, review the implementation of the programme and the progress made toward the programme objectives. The PMC is responsible for the selection of operations to receive funding.A link to the programme webpage can be found here: https://irelandwales.eu/