EVALDAT Panel Data Set

• Data type: Company-specific data
• Keywords: R&D funding, evaluation, innovation, panel survey

The EVALDAT research project created a panel dataset that can be used for quantitative impact analyses of R&D and innovation funding schemes in Germany targeting firms. For this purpose, panel data from the Mannheim Innovation Panel (MIP) were linked with administrative funding data from the following firm-level funding programmes:

• R&D funding under federal technology programmes (from 2000 onwards)
• R&D funding under the Central Innovation Programme for SMEs (since the programme's inception in 2008)
• R&D funding under the Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020 programmes, as well as the EU Framework Programmes 3 to 7
• R&D and innovation funding under ERDF-cofinanced state programmes (currently only for the 2014-2020 funding period)
• Projects approved for the German R&D tax credit ('research allowance') (since the programme's inception in 2020)

The EVALDAT panel dataset includes, among other things, the following variables:

• Amount of R&D funding received per year (further characteristics of the funding, such as project type, topic area, etc., can be provided from the administrative funding data, if necessary)
• Information on innovation activities based on the variables recorded in the MIP (including innovation expenditures, product and process innovations, economic returns from innovations, organization of innovation projects)
• Key economic indicators of the firms (number of employees, sales, exports, investments, personnel expenses, intermediate consumption, return on sales)

The EVALDAT panel dataset provides a particularly suitable starting point for comparisons with control groups. It should be noted that the number of observations on firms receiving funding in the individual funding programmes is small, as the EVALDAT panel dataset only includes those firms for which observations also exist in the MIP. Since the MIP is a voluntary sample survey with a limited reporting scope, observations are typically available in the EVALDAT panel dataset for less than 10% of the firms receiving funding in a given programme. Therefore, for evaluations of funding programmes, it is generally necessary to supplement this data with information on firms receiving funding from other sources, such as surveys of the firms themselves.

The EVALDAT panel dataset is available for evaluations commissioned by public bodies and for basic scientific research. Use of the EVALDAT panel dataset requires an application to the ZEW (Centre for European Economic Research) and approval from the bodies that provided the funding data. Before submitting an application, it is strongly recommended to contact the ZEW (Sandra Gottschalk, Christian Rammer) to clarify whether the specific research question can be addressed using the EVALDAT panel dataset.