Four Years of Independent Evaluation of Sardinia's 2014–2020 ERDF Regional Operational Programme

Written By Andrea Gramillano
Publishing 09 September 2026

T33 carried out the independent evaluation of the Sardinia ERDF Regional Operational Programme (ROP) 2014-2020 over four years, from 2022 to 2026. The evaluation was commissioned by the Managing Authority at the Regional Planning Centre (CRP), with the support of the Public Investment Evaluation and Verification Unit (Nucleo di valutazione e verifica degli investimenti pubblici) of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia. The assignment, awarded when the Programme was already at an advanced stage, accompanied its closure and subsequently supported the Region in meeting its remaining obligations towards the European Commission.

The Sardinia ERDF ROP 2014-2020 was structured across seven priority axes plus technical assistance, with an initial allocation of approximately €930 million. The independent evaluation, required under Article 56 of EU Regulation 1303/2013, covered the effectiveness, efficiency and impact of the Programme.

The work developed around three main phases. The evaluation of financial instruments – the first published report of the assignment – was delivered at the end of 2022. The final evaluation report, a synthesis based on the evidence gathered up to that point, followed at the end of 2023. Between 2024 and 2026, the six main thematic evaluations were completed, covering research and innovation, the digital agenda, competitiveness, energy, mobility and attractors (sites and assets that draw visitors), as ex post evaluations. Depending on the theme, the analysis also considered relevance to regional needs and coherence with other planning instruments.

The assignment also included specific contributions requested by the Programme. In December 2022, T33 delivered evaluative analyses covering the whole Programme, required for the summary report on evaluation activities under Article 114 of Regulation 1303/2013 and submitted to the European Commission. In 2025, T33 supported the Region in drafting the Programme's Final Performance Report.

The evaluation gave T33 an opportunity to apply its evaluation methodologies. The intervention logic was reconstructed for each of the Programme's 34 actions. Surveys among businesses and operators achieved significant response rates: 67 responses out of 150 businesses contacted under Axis III (45%), 202 operations covered out of a total population of 615 in the extended 2022-2023 survey, a very significant and representative coverage of the cultural sector, and 23 responses out of 34 operators in the survey on the Tepilora Park (67.6%). These were complemented by around 70 interview sessions, a series of territorial case studies, the 11 steering groups facilitated between 2023 and 2024 – promoted by the Evaluation Unit as part of its participatory approach and informed by T33's technical analysis – and three training modules delivered to regional staff.

The working group, coordinated by Alessandro Valenza, mainly involved Andrea Gramillano and Pietro Celotti, who were present throughout all phases of the assignment, and François Levarlet, who led the evaluations on energy and mobility. Giovanni Familiari focused in particular on the financial instruments and digital agenda. Emanuele Armillotta ensured the quality of data processing throughout the evaluation work, through an increasingly in-depth use of the SMEC database, producing graphic and cartographic visualisations where appropriate.

Overall, the evaluation work points to a picture that varies by axis, further examined in the individual thematic evaluations. On research and innovation, the Programme generated significant behavioural additionality, although the innovations supported remained predominantly incremental. Regarding the digital agenda, progress was observed in public administration services, alongside persisting gaps in rural and inland areas. On competitiveness, the strongest effects on private investment were recorded among microenterprises; export promotion measures proved effective in strengthening internationalisation. On energy, interventions involved hundreds of projects across a significant share of Sardinian municipalities, with demand exceeding available resources on several occasions. Regarding local mobility, an improvement in service quality was observed, alongside a not yet significant increase in public transport use. On attractors, interventions strengthened the infrastructure supporting nature-based tourism, in particular the trail network.

The work carried out points to a number of cross-cutting lessons for the 2021-2027 cycle. The clearest concerns the use of ERDF funds for public works, which in the 2014-2020 Programme accounted for a significant share of eligible cost and were concentrated precisely in the axes with the slowest progress: the recommendation is to steer ERDF funding more towards goods and services, leaving infrastructure financing, which is less constrained by programming deadlines, to other instruments.

In 2026, T33 delivered twelve English-language abstracts of the main outputs, intended for dissemination at European level, a synoptic overview of the Programme's calls and projects, an analysis of the Programme's communication activities, the gender equality evaluation, and an analysis of the integration between Sardinian regional planning and the cross-border planning of Interreg Italy-France Maritime: instruments designed for use in the 2021-2027 programming period, concluding an assignment that spanned the Programme's entire life cycle.

An evaluation assignment of this duration, thematic breadth, richness of the evidence base and intensity of stakeholder engagement is unusual. For T33's working group, it represented a substantial opportunity for professional growth.