R&I Partnership Evaluation (RIPE) Toolkit

The R&I Partnership Evaluation (RIPE) Toolkit presents a complete monitoring and evaluation methodology with concrete steps, examples, templates and good practice tips based on the work of ERA-LEARN over the years in supporting the P2Ps in their monitoring and evaluation activities. To contribute to a more harmonised monitoring and assessment approach of the new European R&I Partnerships to the degree possible under Horizon Europe, the European Commission set up in 2021 an Expert Group to support the Strategic Coordinating Process – a new governance framework for EU Research & Innovation (R&I) Partnerships. The group is working towards developing a new framework and methodology for monitoring and evaluation of the new partnerships in close collaboration with the partnerships themselves and the participating countries. The methodology will lead to Biennial Monitoring Reports. The RIPE toolkit will accordingly be updated and adjusted to support the new partnerships under Horizon Europe to apply the new monitoring and evaluation framework and methodology and meet their own as well as the centralised, horizontal reporting requirements. This will improve the evidence base for strategic discussions on the new partnership policy and landscape.

Who is it for?

The RIPE Toolkit is primarily designed for those that are responsible for monitoring and evaluation activities in partnerships for research and innovation. The RIPE Toolkit addresses the need of the partnership stakeholders, such as higher-level policy-makers and public officials at European, national and regional levels as well as coordinators and participants, to identify and demonstrate the impacts from partnerships in research and innovation. It aims to

• establish clear and comprehensive understanding of evaluation terms and practices,
• help the partnership community understand what it takes to carry out evaluation and impact assessment exercises alone or in collaboration with external evaluators and
• provide advice and recommendations on how to use evaluation results.

The RIPE Toolkit can be used for

• the actual implementation of monitoring and evaluation within the partnerships,
• overseeing and steering evaluation exercises when outsourced to external evaluators and
• training (new) staff within partnerships that will be assigned with the responsibility of the monitoring and evaluation tasks.

The RIPE Toolkit is a 'live' task throughout the life of ERA-LEARN. It will be gradually enriched and updated with more material i.e. videos, presentations, new tested tools and methods and practical exercises, as these become available through the evaluation activities of ERA-LEARN.

The RIPE toolkit will be updated early 2022 to support the new partnerships under Horizon Europe to apply the new monitoring and evaluation framework and methodology that are currently being developed by the relevant Expert Group in close collaboration with the partnerships and participating countries.

The RIPE Toolkit is structured along three main steps/sections (planning, doing/ carrying out and using the results) of monitoring and evaluation of partnerships in R&I.