What is the general structure that SRIA should follow?

There is no ‘one size fits all’ template for SRIA and partnerships may adopt different approaches depending on the specific needs in the field and the stakeholders concerned. In some cases, a SRIA may need to refer to a set of technological challenges or regulatory issues and its industrial and public partners. In other cases, a partnership may need to focus more on key needs and the interaction between actors from public policy, research and innovation communities, and end-users around jointly defined challenges.

All SRIAs need to feature a level of detail, that allows for establishing annual and multi-annual work plans based upon the prioritized lines of action. SRIA development processes should allow for consideration of societal needs and European policy priorities, engagement of relevant actors and development of actionable impact pathways.

The following elements may serve as constituent parts of a SRIA:

Describing a partnership’s ambition: Vision & Mission

A vision statement should describe the overarching aspiration of a partnership, a description of the basic attributes of the desired future. Vision statements do not outline specific targets, but a broad description of the values and ambitions that a partnership aims to provide. It should inspire people and motivate them to get involved in the partnership. Vision statements should be clear and concise, not longer than a short paragraph. They can be a relevant starting point to develop concrete objectives and actions of a partnership.

A mission statement describes what a partnership is about to do in its operations to achieve the vision. Vision and mission must support each other, but the mission statement is more specific. It defines the main principles that will allow the partnership to contribute to achieving the vision and the key areas for partnership operations.

Vision and mission statements can provide the main guiding principles for developing concrete objectives that link the analysis of the relevant problems and their framework conditions to the prioritized options for partnership responses.

Intervention logic and impact pathways

A clear and concrete definition of objectives sets the level of ambitions and criteria for monitoring and evaluating the achievements (see Better Regulation Guidelines).

Partnership impact pathways reflect a roadmap of intended outcomes, the way to connect vision, objectives, impacts, outcomes, and results. The approach to impact pathways should address the broader framework of Key Impact Pathways adopted by Horizon Europe. It should reflect upon the relevant drivers and barriers and provide the basis for an agreement (buy-in) of all partners about what needs to happen and who needs to be involved in it. An overview of options on how to design an intervention logic can be found here.

Priority areas and instruments

A SRIA should define key priority areas, i.e., the main thematic areas it is about to address. These can take various forms and can be defined in terms of key challenges to be tackled, research needs, research questions etc. For each thematic area SRIA may address the following aspects:

  • Why is the area important?
  • Which specific challenges/sub-questions need to be dealt with?
  • How is the area going to be addressed (i.e., which instruments are being used?)?
  • Who needs to be involved? Estimated timeline and resources
  • What the main benefits/results are expected from tackling this area?

Measuring progress against intended impacts

SRIA should lay out an approach for measuring its outcomes and impacts. Deriving well-developed key performance indicators (KPIs) from the partnership’s programme theory and intended impact pathways allows for measuring progress against goals in a defined timeframe. KPIs should be defined using SMART criteria: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. The SRIA could also lay out a monitoring and evaluation framework for the partnership, providing a reference for the future operationalization of its monitoring system.