European Funding

"For the 2007–2013 Structural Funds Programmes in Wales all project sponsors are required to undertake or commission evaluations of their projects." - WEFO Monitoring and Evaluation Guidance

Wavehill are a leading evaluator of European funded programmes in Wales and across the UK. We have extensive experience of evaluating an incredible range of large and small projects funded by the ERDF, ESF and Interreg programmes. If you don’t want to commission an independent evaluation, we can also help you to put in place monitoring systems that will make sure that you collect the information that you need to demonstrate the impact of your project.

The following are only a few examples of our recent work:

ESF projects

Ongoing evaluation of the COASTAL project - Wavehill have been appointed by the City and County of Swansea to undertake an ongoing independent evaluation of COASTAL; a £54m project aimed at the promotion of vocational guidance, employment, skills training and lifelong learning opportunities for individuals who are currently economically inactive. COASTAL is funded by the European Commission's Convergence Programme and is a regional project which covers the local authority areas of Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Carmarthen, Pembroke, Bridgend and Ceredigion.

Ongoing evaluation of the Life Skills project - Life Skills is a £14million project that supports the delivery of services throughout Wales that will mainly support targeted groups of economically inactive people to engage or re-engage with education, learning, volunteering and employment. It is a focussed project targeting the following specific participant groups: ‘care leavers’, ‘carers and former carers returning to work’, ‘economically inactive families’ and ‘older people’. The evaluation, being undertaken over a 4 year period, is focused on assessing whether the project is achieving its objectives and how those objectives are being achieved. Identifying and sharing good practice and lessons learnt is an important part of the evaluation.

Ongoing evaluation of the ILM Project - Wavehill is evaluating the Intermediate Labour Market (ILM) project funded under Priority 2 Theme 1 of the Convergence and Regional Competitiveness and Employment (RCE) programme for the Welsh Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA). The aim of the ILM project is to reduce economic inactivity in North and East Wales by offering contracts to organisations providing personal development to people facing barriers to employment through a period of supported employment and training. As part of the evaluation we will assess whether the project is successfully reaching individuals furthest from the labour market.

ERDF projects

Ongoing evaluation of the Communities and Nature Project - Communities and Nature (CAN) is a £14.5 million project part funded by the European Union’s Convergence Programme. The underlying ambition of CAN is to generate increased economic growth and sustainable jobs by capitalising on Wales’ environmental qualities, particularly its landscape and wildlife. The evaluation will be undertaken over a 3 year period alongside the delivery of the project and the initiatives it funds. The evaluation will measure the socio-economic impact of CAN interventions on volunteers, participants, delivery agents and the communities who ‘host’ initiatives funded by the project.

UCLAN - Wavehill undertook an evaluation study on three ERDF funded projects based with the Knowledge Transfer Service at the UCLan. UNITE is a regional initiative providing support to small to medium enterprises (SMEs) through the use of free short term, four week, student and graduate placements. Northern Lights is a comprehensive business support programme designed for people who are thinking about starting a business, or who are already in operation. The Media Revenue element of the programme is focused on established SMEs and the Entrepreneurship element of the programme is focused on the pre-start up phase of development. The lifespan of the projects has been approximately 2 years and they have a collective value of £5.8million to the University.

Interreg  projects

Evaluation of Keep Wales Tidy & Au Taisce’s Green Communities Project – Wavehill has recently been engaged to undertake an evaluation of the Green Communities Project which is the last year of this EU-funded community project. The purpose of the evaluation is to identify the strengths, weaknesses and effectiveness of its work in engaging with communities in environmental activities. KWT runs a number of projects and programmes across Wales such as; Eco-School, Blue Flag Campaign, Green Coast Award, Seaside Awards, Tidy Wales Award, Tidy Wales Week and numerous community ‘adoption’ programmes.

Interim evaluation of the Celtic Wave Project – ‘Celtic Wave’ is a Welsh Irish project collaborative partnership project funded by the Interreg 4A Programme. Three Welsh ports (Anglesey, Milford Haven and Swansea) have joined forces with three ports on the south and east coast of Ireland (Dublin, Cork and Waterford) for the project which is aiming to facilitate the development and growth of the cruise ship industry in the Irish Sea. Wavehill’s evaluation will review the progress that has been made to date with a view to identifying good practice and areas for further development as the project progresses.