Objectives
Aim of the project is to stimulate and enhance the research on the implementation and evaluation of Structural Funds and thus improve the governance, transparency and impacts of Structural Funds in the new member states. Therefore firstly the objective is to create a core network of organizations that will carry out detailed, accessible and comparable research on Structural Funds. The network partners will work together to create rigorous and effective techniques for investigating the implementation of Structural Funds in the next EU budget period. This network will form a backbone on future collaborative research and will create a network of research excellence in the area of Structural Funds research.
The second objective is to stimulate capacity building in research of Structural Funds with focus on the impacts and transparency. This will be reached by disseminating the accumulated knowledge among all participants, by learning with more academically oriented institutions such as universities, research institutes, think tanks and by involving experts from EU 15 countries in the conference in order to learn from their experience.
Next intention is to inform and enhance public debate thus changing the terms of public debate and raising public awareness of this issue - not just on the activist level but to provide scientific prove and scientific background for discussions. The last objective of this project is to provide critical partnership to programming, implementing, monitoring and evaluation based on research outcomes and common knowledge in these areas.
