New policy approaches in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI), new instruments as well as pressuring societal demands raised by economic actors and civil society challenge inclusive STI policies to deliver discernible social, economic and ecological benefits of R&D in effective ways. This will not only require new thinking in terms of STI evaluation designs, methodological diversity and interaction between policy-making and evaluation studies but also between STI governance, public management and society in general.

The international conference "Evaluation of STI policies, instruments and organisations: new horizons and new challenges" addresses these challenges in this thematic sessions:

1. New approaches for evaluating STI Policies and Instruments
2. Assessing the variety and long-term impact of research
3. STI Policy Evaluation in new- and non-OECD Countries
4. Challenges in assessing new European Research Area polices, programs and instruments
5. Evaluating for selection – challenges and opportunities
6. Evaluation practices scrutinized
7. Evaluation of STI policy portfolios and policy mixes
8. Data, monitoring systems and indicators
9. New Developments in Innovation Policy Evaluation
10. Evaluation of International RTI Programs
11. HORIZON 2020: the overall evaluation approach

Central questions addressed during the conference are:

• What are adequate evaluations concepts, methodologies and practices vis-à-vis new political STI policy approaches?
• What kind of evaluations is needed to respond to new STI policy-delivery models?
• Whether and how can transformative effects of new mission-oriented approaches be identified and assessed?
• By which criteria should funding bodies evaluate research on grand societal challenges, and how ‘political’ become evaluations and criteria in such policy-driven framework?
• How can long-term effects of STI interventions be measured and the social impact of R&D be better appraised?
• What are the evaluation challenges of ERA level policies and instruments?
• What new approaches and assessment criteria are needed to meet the requirements of new instruments and institutions with a truly European pretence?
• How do ERA developments interfere with national level evaluation?
• What new indicators are needed to support the evaluation of new national, European and international STI policies?
• How should research information systems be meaningfully designed to be useful for next-generation monitoring and evaluation?