Learning from implementation and evaluation of the eu cohesion policy. Lessons from a research-policy dialogue.

Dotti, Nicola Francesco [UCL] et al.

In 2015, the Regional Studies Association (RSA) celebrated 50 years and one of the keywords of this (hi)story is “impactful”. Having an impact requires to be able to bring research-based knowledge to policymakers moving out of the academic ‘Ivory Tower’ and engaging in policy debate, thus acknowledging the societal role of research. Yet, this requires changing the traditional approach to research, academic conferences, publications and scientific workshops. This volume aims to tackle the challenge of a research-policy dialogue addressing the case of the Cohesion Policy (CP), the most important EU regional policy and, probably, the most complex policy in the world for economic, social, geographical, cultural, administrative and legal reasons. This challenge is even more relevant in this period when Europe is showing difficulties to fully recover from the financial and economic crisis that started in 2008, and the following political crisis that culminated with ‘Brexit’. In this context, researchers are called to be ‘impactful’, proposing research-based policy lessons that can feed the political debate. In a period of crisis, research-policy dialogue is needed; however, how to make it happen is not easy. This volume adopts a ‘policy learning’ perspective proposing sixteen different research-based policy lessons to contribute to the debate on policy learning in the case of the EU Cohesion Policy, and beyond.