Praise for North Sea Region projects
Although the VB programme is still in full swing, the first steps towards measuring the impact of projects are taking place. We asked consulting firm Ramboll to research the effect of North Sea Region projects and investigate if the projects reach their targets.
Overall the evaluators find that the projects have a substantial positive impact on the North Sea Region. The report highlights the following:
- Many projects encourage the adoption of products, processes and services to ‘green’ the North Sea Region.
- Projects of the programme have shown to improve climate change. adaptation, increase resilience and improve ecosystem management.
- Several projects have increased regional capacity for a shift to low-carbon transport.
- Projects in all priorities contribute to SMEs’ capacity to increase innovation.
Also, the research shows that a large share of projects successfully contributes to the implementation or changing of policies and has contributed to placing certain topics higher on the political agenda. It mentions the conducted pilots and tests in different regions as a key factor of the high effectiveness of the projects.
The report includes a number of useful recommendations that the Programme Preparation Group is taking on board in developing the new programme.
You can find the ‘Operational and impact evaluation report’ here.