In order to stimulate the competitiveness the EU council invoked the Lisbon-Process. In addition, the crucial importance of R&D for future competitiveness is highlighted by the Barcelona objectives which hold that the EU will approach 3% R&D spending relative to the gross domestic product of which 2/3 is financed by industry and 1/3 is contributed by the public sector. In recent years some small progress towards the Barcelona objectives has been made by some member states. However, there is still a large gap between the objective and it is the current realisation. This is especially the case with regard to private investment in R&D, most notably so as compared to the US and Japan. Hence, there is an obvious need for governments in nearly all EU countries to reconfigure public R&D and innovation policies towards improved stimuli for private R&D investment. The objectives of this study included four main issues:
I. MappingIdentification, listing and mapping of all the initiatives/research programmes with significant impact on innovation. The mapping identified various types of initiatives and different contacts points to establish a platform for sharing information.II. BenchmarkingBenchmark of methodologies used to assess the impact of R&D on innovation and the relevant strategies adopted to increase this impact.III. Good practicesIdentification of good practices in the design management and implementation of R&D initiatives/programmes. Another important issue in the project was to identifiy  the possible and most ef-fective means to diffuse them.IV. ConferenceOrganisation of an international conference to present, validate and dis-seminate results and pave the way for further co-operation of the involved actors, in order to maximise the benefits for the European innovation area. The conference took place 23rd and 24th October 2007 in Berlin and was a platform to discuss R&D programmes for scientists and practitioners.