Carbon Connections evaluation

Carbon Connections was a low carbon innovation development fund led by the University of East Anglia (UEA). It was one of 11 three-year projects supported by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), under the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) between 2007 and 2009. Educe were commissioned to assess the qualitative impact of the fund, and draw lessons and pointers to inform the strategic development of similar programmes. We provided UEA with an overall evaluation framework, with our research complementing other evaluative data from individual projects and a separate assessment of carbon reduction gains. The evaluation considered, amongst other things, forms of added value generated by the programme, the role of project co-ordinators as brokers/relationship managers, and perspectives from venture capital organisations and private sector partners.

UEA’s experience in managing Carbon Connections led to their success in securing ERDF funding for the Low Carbon Innovation Fund (LCIF), a regional venture capital fund in the East of England aimed at SMEs who are developing innovative products, services or processes in a low carbon, environmentally sensitive manner. Educe have since been commissioned to undertake the evaluation of LCIF, in conjunction with Futureneering Ltd.

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