Evaluating the Impact of Public Support on Commercial Research and Development Projects.

Additionality is a recurring issue when evaluating the impact of public support for research and development (R&D). To what degree does public support spur additional R&D efforts and output? This article discusses the additionality concept and its measurement. Verbal reports from recipients of public support are a widely used method for measuring the additionality of ongoing R&D programmes. However, it is often argued that these reports cannot be trusted since the recipients might have an incentive to answer strategically to maintain funding. Based on the verbal reports of project additionality in Norwegian evaluations over the last two decades, involving 2624 observations, higher additionality is reported in projects further from the market involving higher risks and uncertainty than in projects closer to market launch. This is in line with a priori expectations. It will be argued that the problem of strategic answering might be over-rated, and that verbal reports can provide important evidence. This is exemplified by results from verbal reports of additionality obtained by interviewing the customers of 21 different Norwegian research institutes.[SUP1] They show that public support is more important for the realization of projects within small- and medium-sized enterprises than with larger firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]