EU to look at areas of improvement for administrators, including European Research Council Executive Agency
The EU is seeking feedback on the agencies responsible for administering its research and innovation funding, as part of an evaluation of their effectiveness, efficiency and coherence.
Six EU executive agencies are being evaluated for their performance from 2017 to 2021, including the European Research Council Executive Agency, the Research Executive Agency, the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency and the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.
The European Commission announced on 10 March that it is seeking views from the public and stakeholders on the evaluation initiative, which will look at whether the agencies produced the results expected of them and identify areas of improvement.
This is despite the scope of some of the agencies being adjusted in 2021 in line with the creation of the new EU research and innovation programme, Horizon Europe.
The European Commission said the “main question” to be answered with the evaluation is “what more could be achieved in terms of financial savings, improved services and other synergies and efficiency gains by delegating implementation tasks to agencies” compared with these tasks being carried out by the Commission.
Feedback can be submitted until 7 April.