Cohesion Policy operational programme 2014-2020, research and innovation priority
Slovenia's cohesion policy operational programme reported that 241 enterprises it supported had cooperated with research institutions by 2020, against a target of 135 that was later raised to 210, and the count held at 241 through the end of 2023.
241 enterprises, enterprises cooperating with research institutions, investment priority 1a (common indicator co26, cumulative implemented value), 2023. 210 enterprises, final target for the same indicator, raised from 135, 2023. European Commission, Cohesion Open Data Platform, ESIF 2014-2020 Achievement Details timeseries (programme 2014SI16MAOP001, indicator CO26), retrieved 2026-10-17.
The move, and what it needed
Slovenian ministries ran cohesion-funded research and innovation calls that paid firms for projects carried out with universities and public institutes, and reported each participating firm against a common European indicator.
Preconditions
- Cohesion funding large relative to the national research budget, with a common indicator reported every year
- Public universities and institutes able to contract research with firms
- Firms able to co-finance research and carry the administrative load of a structural funds project
Limits: The values are what the Slovenian managing authority reported to the Commission in its annual implementation reports, so they are the programme's own account, republished by the Commission without audit. The target moved upward: it was 135 until 2019 and 210 from 2020, after the programme had already passed the first figure, so beating the final target says little on its own. The count stopped growing in 2020 and stayed at 241 to 2023, so the collaboration counted here was mostly delivered in 2016 to 2019. CO26 counts enterprises, not projects, money or results, and any firm that took part in a supported project with a research institution counts once. A research institution includes public institutes as well as universities, and the dataset does not split them or give a figure per call. The money was mostly European Regional Development Fund co-financing administered through Slovenian ministries. The year 2016 is the first year with a reported value, not the first call. The single-year URL carries the 2023 values; the earlier years are in the same dataset without the year filter.