R&D

During 2023, t33's research activities primarily focused on the digital transition. In February, t33 participated in a Formez webinar on the report entitled 'The Digital Transition'. Additionally, t33 contributed to the realisation of the first section of the report, entitled 'Ideas and Reflections from DESI for the Digital Transition in Italy'. DESI, which stands for the Digital Economy and Society Index, summarises indicators related to digital performance in the EU, tracking progress among member countries. You can find the report here.

In October, as part of the REGIOPeer2Peer Communities of Practice, t33 had the opportunity to participate in a meeting focused on digital administration and IT systems. During this meeting, t33 experts provided valuable insights on leveraging E-cohesion for risk management and emphasised the importance of harnessing Cohesion data for business intelligence.

In 2022, t33 carried out research activities in collaboration with both the Conference of Italian Regions and Autonomous Provinces and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Italy focussed on three main topics.

The first topic, at the heart of t33's interests, is the future of Cohesion Policy. Within the scope of a seminarorganized by the Conference of Italian Regions and Autonomous Provinces, t33 discussed the distinction between Cohesion as a ‘policy’ and Cohesion as a ‘principle’. The aim was to provide elements to investigate the practical application of the principle of Cohesion in other European policies, the relationship between Cohesion Policy and NRRPs (complementarity or competition?), as well as the changes observed following the pandemic. Three possible future scenarios were eventually outlined, ranging from a ‘minimal’ Cohesion Policy to the extension of the Cohesion Policy method to other European policies, and maintaining the current status quo.

The second topic concerned public procurement, with particular reference to SME access. t33's reflection, based on a historical and comparative approach between the Italian and French national contexts, was published in the CINSEDO Papers 2022 by the Conference of Italian Regions and Autonomous Provinces under the title ‘Public procurement: what are the needs and challenges for better SME access? The article highlights the importance of enhancing the administrative capacity of contracting authorities. To actively pursue this objective, a Peer to Peer Community on public procurementwas initiated by t33 on behalf of DG Regio in 2022.

Finally, as a partner of IGF, t33 contributed to the preparation of the first section of the ‘Digital Transition report’ by Formez, called ‘Ideas and reflections from DESI for the digital transition in Italy’. DESI is an index of the digital economy and society that summarizes the indicators of digital performance in the EU, tracking progress in member states.

In 2021, research activities were carried out in the two different national context, Italy and Romania, where t33 evaluates regional and national programmes financed by Cohesion Policy.

On the Italian side, prompted by the Conference of Italian Regions and Autonomous Provinces, t33 studied the impact of Covid on the regions and the operational paths for recovery. In particular, t33 published four articles in the CINSEDO Papers 2021 that analyse the changes induced by the pandemic (1) in the approach to programme evaluation, (2) in the application of ESI funds to the health sector, (3) in the use of financial instruments within the ESI funds, (4) in the construction of European Territorial Cooperation programmes. A further area of reflection developed in partnership with the Conference of Italian Regions and Autonomous Provinces was the strengthening of administrative capacities in Cohesion Policy.

Through a seminar approach, t33 had the opportunity to discuss the opportunities created by the inclusion of ‘roadmaps’ in the 2021-2027 programming period with institutional stakeholders.

On the Romanian side, t33 had the opportunity to participate in the national conference on the evaluation of programmes financed by ESI funds 2014-2020 and on the prospects for evaluation in the period 2021-2027. Reflections were shared on the evaluation of intangibles in the programme for strengthening administrative capacity (POCA), as well as methodological elements related to the evaluation of the programme that finances large environmental infrastructures.

2020 was a special year for everyone, including t33 experts. It was necessary to reinterpret one's own themes in a radically different context, that of the pandemic.

This was the case of the financial instruments, one of the main topics of t33 research. In a paper entitled Financing working capital through financial instruments: an opportunity to be seized immediately, Michele Alessandrini and Clarissa Amichetti examined the modalities for supporting the liquidity needs of enterprises, especially SMEs, through European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF). The paper was co-authored by Marco Naseddu, an official in the regional administration of Sardinia, who wanted to apply such solutions in the regional ERDF programme.

More generally, stimulated by Alessandro Valenza, the t33 experts reflected on how to maximise the cohesion policy resources to contribute to the 'reconstruction' after the pandemic phase. A structured proposal to extend the programming period was prepared. This sparkled an intense discussion, which was further stimulated by an article in which t33 experts outlined the benefits of a possible extension of the programming period.

2019 was a transition year for t33. After four years dedicated to analysing the use of financial instruments in the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) as part of the fi-compass service, the t33 experts had the opportunity to take stock of the exchanges with many valuable experts and prepare the ground for further research activities in this field.

In the summer, a seminar on Financial Instruments in the European Territorial Cooperation was organized in Ancona. By simulating a real case, the discussion enabled the participants to draw the conclusions and better understand the challenges. In this context, René-Laurent Ballaguy (EIB); Silvia Comiati (ETC expert); Ivan Curzolo (ETC expert); Marianne Denoeu (JS, Interreg 2 Seas); Philip Heaton (ETC expert); Marco Naseddu (Sardegna Region); Salvatore Vescina (financial instruments expert); and Paolo Zaggia (Finlombarda) directly contributed to the success of the seminar.

During 2018, t33 research activity has focused principally on the topics of innovation and evaluation of European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF).

This year the company drafted a t33 Quaderno ‘The evaluation as a supporting tool to research and innovation in EU policy: from design to impact assessment’. The paper illustrates lessons learned from authors’ evaluation experiences within the ESIF framework. The paper sets out the focus of the evaluation in the policy cycle’s phases, describes implementation challenges and options of financial instruments, instead of, or in combination with grants, and builds on the main findings of a few impact studies conducted in various regional and national contexts.

Evaluation shall not be considered as a mere technical exercise. Instead, it can be a supporting tool to research and innovation policy if it: (1) evolves and develops with the policy cycle (from design to review); (2) adopts a benchmarking function for judgements and recommendations to compare the case under assessment with others; (3) combines theory-based and counterfactual impact evaluation approaches; (4) ensures the integration of various types of data including big, open and georeferenced data.

t33 research has covered financial instruments, impact evaluation, sustainable and territorial development, environmental effects, innovation, data visualisation, future of cohesion policy. Research has been an opportunity to deepen and consolidate analyses in studies, evaluations and assignments, to increase and strengthen networking capacity, explore new tools and test specific methods.

In March, t33 participated in the 2^nd International Conference ‘Smart and Sustainable Planning for Cities and Regions’ and presented ‘SEA for sustainable cities: how the strategic environmental assessment has driven the ESI programme towards urban sustainability’. The draft paper was presented in March and accepted for publication.

t33 participated in the Regional Study Association event - The Great Regional Awakening: New Directions, (Dublin, 5-6-7 June). The presentation on the future of cohesion policy focused on policy delivery tools for the new period and the debate over grants versus loans arguing that financial instruments can have significant added value when they are used to tackle a well-defined market failure. 

In June 2017, t33 participated in the International Evaluation Conference and presented the impact evaluation of the Romanian intervention supporting micro enterprise development. The presentation was during Panel 5 ‘Effects of public support schemes on SME’ of the International Evaluation Conference.

t33 published Financial Instruments for Enterprises in 2007-13: a Practice Run for 2014-20? on ESIF (European Structural and Investment funds journal). The paper is based on the DG Regio ex-post evaluation on financial instruments for enterprises.

The methodology ‘Improving Sustainability of Programmes in Strategic Environmental Assessment Procedures: the QUAlitative Structural Approach for Ranking (QUASAR) the Environmental Effects’ already presented at the 4th International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD) in September 2016, is now published on the European Journal of Sustainable Development (EJSD, Vol.6, n.1, doi:10.14207/ejsd), the double blinded peer-reviewed open access journal supervised by the European Center of Sustainable Development. QuaSAR represents a new approach for the qualitative assessment of environmental effects in strategic environmental assessment procedures, in cases where a quantitative assessment is not possible. 

Moreover, in 2018, the research activity of t33 has also focused on methods and tools for monitoring and evaluation within a PhD programme at Marche Polytechnic University. Three papers are currently under peer-review. The first ‘Is Smart Specialisation Strategy coherent with regional innovative capabilities?’ aims at providing a first empirical assessment of the coherence between the technological domains chosen by Italian regions and those where they have research and innovation capabilities, as measured by their patenting activity. The second ‘Assessing technological relatedness between specialization domains in the Smart Specialization Strategy’ uses patent data and IPC codes to analyse the extent that EU regional authority choices improved relatedness between technological domains in European regions. The third paper ‘Data Visualization of European Regional Operational Programmes: Unleashing the Informative Potential of Open Data for Performance Assessment’ describes the process of open data mining and visualisation for information production on regional programme performance in achieving effective expenditure. The paper is available in open preview at: https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/201801.0066/v

In the health sector, and specifically in the medical field, two papers have been published. The first is ‘Does PPOFEV1 predict early observed FEV1 after uniportal vats anatomical resections? A prospective evaluation’ and is available at https://academic.oup.com/icvts/article/23/suppl_1/i56/2487290.

The second paper is ‘The VATS lobectomy procedure doesn't offer any functional recovery advantage in comparison to the open approach after three months after the operation. A case matched analysis’ and is available at https://academic.oup.com/ejcts/article-abstract/51/6/1177/3048648.

t33 published the article 'Is culture a key factor in the European Union’s macro-regional strategies?' on the the economic magazine Economia della Cultura.

t33 participated at the 4th International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD) held in Rome on the 15 and 16 September 2016 presenting QuaSAR, a new approach for the qualitative assessment of environmental effects in strategic environmental assessment procedures. The article will be published in 2017 on the European Journal of Sustainable Development.

t33 presented two working papers at the annual Regional Studies Association (RSA) Conference held in Graz. The first one was entitled Programme Contributions to EUSALP in the Alpine Space Multi-level Governance Perspective and the second one Contributions of ETC Programmes to EUSAIR Pillars. Furthermore, the working paper Assessing technological relatedness between specialisation domains: an empirical analysis of S3 in Italian regions was presented during the conference Towards Impact and Contribution to Knowledge held at the Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, UK on the 27th and 28th October 2016.

t33 adopted various counterfactual impact evaluation techniques for medical research in order to provide statistical and computational support to the group of medical researchers from Ospedali Riuniti Ancona (IT) and Leeds St. James University Hospital (UK).

t33 presented in Lisbon a working paper at the annual Regional Studies Association (RSA) network on EU Cohesion Policy on the opportunity of EUSAIR for territorial cohesion in Europe.

t33 presented at the Espon Seminar Territories Acting for Economic Growth: Using territorial evidence to meet challenges towards 2020 a working paper on the use of territorial evidences for macro-regional strategies.

t33 published the article Territorial Evidence Packs for Structural Funds Programmes – TerrEvi in Prezioso M. (2014) Espon Italian Evidence in Changing Europe. The article has been presented on May 21st at the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.

t33 presented two papers, one related to the Adriatic and Ionian Macro-regional Strategy (Quaderno 1) and the other one concerning the combination of qualitative and counterfactual methods for the evaluation of innovation policies carried out on behalf of Marche Region, Italy (Quaderno 2).

t33 presented a working paper at the annual EUGEO conference on the use of ESPON evidence for supporting regional programme decisions.