Ex ante evaluations of government programmes promoting R&D are rare: this is a serious deficit since no systematic basis for decision making is formed. Here, concepts and methods of programme evaluations are described, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of evaluation research. The...

There is tension between the demand for measurement of the return on R&D as an investment, and the ability of current approaches to supply such measures. A common interest in this problem brings together a number of interest groups as evidenced by the membership of the SPEAR Network. In this...