Measuring the impact of publicly funded open innovation programmes: the case of Data Market Services Accelerator

Abstract

One of the current goals of the European Commission is to stimulate the development and uptake of data and AI technologies in the economy. Substantial funding is being invested in open innovation programmes that help startups and small-medium enterprises (SMEs) to assimilate the latest technical and regulatory trends, and to share their innovations with other organisations. In order to assess the efficacy and impact of such initiatives, their specific social and economic objectives must be taken into consideration. As an example of how this can be done in practice, our paper presents the motivating objectives and methodological approaches that were used to assess the impact of the Data Market Services Accelerator (DMS), an EU-funded initiative for data-centric companies. We evaluated the performance of the programme in terms of its effect on the market, fundraising capabilities of companies, innovation, and socio-economic aspects. In addition to assessing how DMS was able to meet its intended objectives, our examination also underscored current challenges related to specific outcomes that are meaningful to the European Commission, including data standardisation and long-term legal strategy. We conclude the paper with a series of recommendations to support the impact assessment efforts of other similar innovation programmes.