Smart Institutions for Territorial Development (SMART-IST) 1/3

Purpose:

• Identification of common institutional prerequisites that are deemed essential for effective territorial development strategies and policies;

• Impact assessment of Cohesion Policy rules and methods on institutional performance

• Assessment of policy options that can be adopted to build capacities for an efficient implementation of Structural Funds

• Development of a common and transferable methodology based on homogeneous and comparable indicators in order to measure, compare and promote improvements in the performance and institutional capacity of public authorities responsible for the implementation of Structural Funds programmes

• Development of performance indicators on institutional efficiency

• Empirical evidence on the link between public sector efficiency and regional economic growth

Smart Institutions for Territorial Development (SMART-IST) 2/3

Thematic scope :

• Overall thematic scope is the link between long term growth and high standard public institutions

• More focused thematic approached will be implemented in the 6 case studies areas

• Italy: policy interventions aiming at improving the capacity of planning and selecting effective projects; policy interventions able to build up territorial integrated development programmes, policy interventions aiming at improving the quality of collective services, policy interventions in the field of education at regional level

• France: decentralisation of the management of Operational Programmes, policy interventions in the field of innovation and solutions for effective cooperation between Managing Authority and Regional Authorities, programming and implementation of multi-regional programmes in the fields of river basins management and urban development

Group of Stakeholders:

• Department for Development and Economic Cohesion of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development

• Interministerial Delegation for the Development and Competitiveness of Territories (DIACT) of the French Government

Smart Institutions for Territorial Development (SMART-IST) 3/3

Length: October 2010 – April 2012

Budget: Max. 350.000 €

Envisaged results:The analysis will have three main components:

• General analysis of the institutional environment that characterised the selected case study areas allowing for the identification of the institutional factors behind the management of Structural Funds in the regions

• In-depth study, through the thematic approaches, of the institutional factors behind the successful implementation of some relevant policy measures for territorial development or tools

• Identification of an appropriate and transferable methodology to measure and enhance institutional efficiency

• Analysis of the cause-effects relationship between economic performance of selected territories and institutional efficiency driven by Cohesion Policy and domestic regional policies