Main objective of this project is the development of an innovation policy impact assessment methodology and instrument.  Transfer of this methodological instrument to other European regions is a must.  Measurement of the regional impact should be improved.

The IMPACTSCAN4INNOPOL is created to provide impact assessment to give access to good practise and thus, stimulates further development taking upcoming needs into account.  This information platform is the foundation for raising awareness and strengthening the policy makers and regional authorities to stimulate successful policy measures and actions.

The implementation and testing of the developed instrument should allow conclusions on the efficiency of the specific regional innovation policy taking the regional particularities into consideration.

Within this context long-term effects of the RIS/RITTS-processes on the policy-making in the regions and on the regional innovation actors reflected by the regional innovation performance should be identified and documented.

The result coming from the benchmarking tool will allow the regions to position themselves with respect to the effectiveness and efficiency on determinants subject to impact assessments.

The question arises whether organisation structure and operating model of the regional innovation support infrastructure (central model, decentralised model, distributed model, ...) could be underlying reasons for diversity in performance level.  Inter-regional benchmarking will allow to compare different innovation systems and innovation policies regarding their effectiveness and efficiency on the indicators.

These indicators are at the base of technological innovation stimulation and thus influence the innovative behaviour of the firms.

The result of the explanatory analysis will give a better view on the adequacy of different types of organisation structure and operating model of the regional innovation support infrastructures.  It will also provide a view on the adequacy of differences in the nature of innovation systems and innovation policies that are applied by regional innovation support infrastructures, within the context of specific characteristics of the regional target group, environmental factors and situational context.