Evaluation of TULI Programmes - Tekes

the universities to comply to their societal mission (e.g.“the
third task”, “innovation union”, etc.) and greatly speed up
the development process. Predominant strategy: entrepreneurship/start-ups.
Capable of providing clear value and
medium to high propensity for the university to finance
operations.
••
Low to medium impact/medium value: VTT – Considerable
prior experience (comparatively). TULI provided additional
means to support the development that was already
happening, possibly speeding up the process. Predominant
strategy: licensing. In line with internal strategies/mission,
provides clear value and a high propensity
to continue financing operations.
We acknowledge that there are exceptions to the categories.
Programme additionality
TULI provided an instrument that complemented and
catalysed the development
Evaluation methodology states that counterfactual analysis is
preferred when analysing the additionality of a programme intervention.
In reality this is seldom possible, as it is not possible
to isolate the effects and impact of a programme to an uninfluenced
environment. In consequence, additionality should
be considered carefully and always clearly indicate other identified
influencing factors. We have taken additional care to assure
this, as can be seen from the prior discussion of TULI and
parallel measures enacted during the programme life time.
A European comparison shows that the programme’s
objectives, such as Objective 1, have in the absolute majority
of cases in other countries been developed through similar
programmes such as TULI (albeit with slightly different programme
functionality and logic). This realisation in combination
with the input from the interviews, particularly with upper
management, we conclude that it is highly doubtful that such
a comprehensive change in particular in regards to awareness
and structures would have been possible in the absence of
TULI, or a similar funding instrument. The parallel measures
that accompanied TULI affected other fundamental aspects
of the process, but a funding vehicle was absolutely necessary
to enable the development of operations at universities and
research institutes.
At the same time, it can certainly be argued that structures
and processes might have been developed based on individual
initiatives, such as at the major universities (e.g. Aalto)
or research institutes (e.g. VTT), as a result of these actors are
more closely following the international trend and are more
inclined to invest resources to stay on par with their immediate
peers. The interviews with innovation managers and upper
management, have however not clearly indicated that this
would have been a parallel reality. On a holistic level however,
we conclude that TULI in many cases has been instrumental
in orchestrating a similar comprehensive system, which is now
visible (in terms of competencies of staff, visible structures and
documented processes).
More to the point, we also conclude that the level of additionality
has of course been of varying degree between the
three research organisations (universities, research institutes
and vocational universities – albeit with individual exceptions):
••
Universities: In the absence of Aalto, we regard that TU-
LI has been critical for most universities to reach the programme’s
objectives.
••
Research institutes: We conclude that the additionality of
TULI in this setting is lower. On the one hand we a committed
and highly experienced RTO in VTT, whereas on the
other hand the other RTOs did not have such a strong prior
experience. We believe that the level of awareness, competence
and professionalism to a high degree already existed
at VTT based on its closeness to and relationship with
the Finnish industry. As such, it is likely that the structures
and processes we today witness would have been developed
anyway. In VTT’s absence, we witness both commitment
and development at MTT, which we attribute highly
to the programme. The same cannot be said for the remaining
institutes, where we have seen very little sustainable
development.
••
Vocational universities: Very high degree of additionality.
Based on the interviews, it is evident that prior to TULI
nothing in terms structures and processes existed. This has
been established with TULI funding. Since the vocational
universities have chosen to focus on students, it is also evident
that awareness among researchers has remained low,
so also the commitment of management.
The perceived and desired effects among the three types
of research organisations should in hindsight be discussed
with Tekes in order to understand possible internal priorities
that should be used when finalising the analysis of these
results.
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