Developing impact pathways to demonstrate the added value of Interreg

Programme evaluation and indicators

Outline and objectives

This meeting is a follow-up to the pilot exercise “Harmonised approach to capture and highlight the added value of Interreg.” Six meetings have already taken place in this context. The materials and results from these meetings are available here on SharePoint and will be shared with participants in advance. The primary objective of this pilot is to support the launch of impact evaluations and facilitate the exchange on evaluation perspectives and methods, ultimately contributing to shaping the future of Interreg. This initiative adopts a bottom-up approach, empowering participating Interreg programmes to collaboratively decide on topics for exchanges and reflections, and developments. This includes jointly developing an evaluation methodology, agreeing on data collection methods, and defining common evaluation questions, impact pathways, and eventually maybe some core messages to be communicated to stakeholders and policymakers.

 

The event builds on recent events and aims to advance the development and use of impact pathways in programme evaluations. It has two main purposes. First, it will provide an opportunity for a peer review exercise based on the experience of the Interreg Flanders–Netherlands programme. Following the meeting in Vienna in June 2025, the programme developed a first set of impact pathways based on the summary and background materials shared. Hence, during this event, the programme will present its approach, explain how the impact pathways were developed, and reflect on the challenges encountered. This will serve as the basis for a peer review discussion, allowing participants to provide feedback, draw lessons, and reflect on the applicability of the approach to their own programmes. On the other hand, it will benefit to the Flander-Netherlands programme to finetune their impact pathway and finally include it in the development of the terms of reference for impact evaluation.

 

Second, the event will focus on jointly developing further impact pathways through group work. Building on the common background and insights from previous events and the peer review exercise, participants will work together on drafting or refining impact pathways for different thematic areas. The group exercise will focus on clarifying the logical links between activities, outputs, outcomes, and longer-term impacts, and on identifying how these pathways can support evaluation design and practice.

 

The meeting will also create space to reflect on the formulation of evaluation questions that can be derived from impact pathways and that can guide future evaluations in a more strategic and structured way.

Through a combination of presentations, group discussions, peer exchange, and collaborative exercises, the event is designed to be highly participatory. By the end of the meeting, participants should have a stronger shared understanding of impact pathways, practical feedback on a concrete programme approach, and group work results that can support the further development and use of impact pathways in Interreg evaluations.

 

Throughout the event, Thomas Delahais from the European Commission Evaluation Helpdesk for Cohesion Policy will actively support and contribute to the discussions and exercises.

 

 

Target group

The event is aimed at representatives of Interreg programmes participating in evaluation activities, especially impact evaluations.