“For me it is […] a great honor to be awarded by the Council and also by fteval, and not just for a specific project, but really for all the work I have done so far. I am very happy about it” (Jakob Kofler)
On Thursday, December 5th, Dr. Sonja Sheikh, Councillor of FORWIT (Council for Research, Science, Innovation and Technology Development) presented the Evaluation Talent Award 2024 to Jakob Kofler in the presence of FORWIT CEO Dr. Thomas König.
Dr. Sonja Sheikh, Jakob Kofler, Dr. Thomas König (f. l. t. r.)
The award ceremony took place during the REvaluation 2024 conference, which this year focused on the challenges and opportunities of research, technology and innovation policies and their evaluation under the theme “Navigating Times of Change”. The conference brought together experts from research, evaluation, policy and funding agencies from 35 countries around the world.
The Evaluation Talent Award was initiated by FORWIT and the Austrian Platform for Research and Technology Policy Evaluation (fteval). The award aims to highlight the importance of evaluation for evidence-based policymaking and to raise international awareness of talent in the field. A jury consisting of renowned evaluators, evaluation clients and other stakeholders in the field of research, technology and innovation policy awarded Jakob Kofler with the Evaluation Talent Award 2024 for his outstanding achievements in the field of policy evaluation.
Jakob Kofler at the REvaluation Conference 2024
At the conference, Jakob Kofler not only received his award, but also presented a scientific article on the effectiveness of EU missions and the implications for the further development of mission-oriented innovation policy. In addition, together with Harald Wieser and Constanze Fetting, he led a co-creative workshop on the development of indicators for measuring transformative change. He also shared his perspective in a panel discussion on the future of research and innovation policy.
Harald Wieser, Constanze Fetting and Jakob Kofler in a co-creative workshop
Jakob Kofler has been a research assistant at KMU Forschung Austria for almost four years. He discovered the topic of evaluation during his master studies: “What I find exciting about evaluation is that the data is usually limited, the questions are interdisciplinary and therefore you usually need a well-functioning team. You need a lot of flexibility and creativity,” says Kofler.
His interdisciplinary academic background is in economics and social sciences with a focus on innovation economics, research, technology and innovation policy, and industrial and social policy. He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam and a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Public Value from University College London. As part of his academic training, he has acquired a broad repertoire of qualitative and quantitative methods.
One of the reasons why Peter Kaufmann (Deputy Director of the Austrian Institute for SME Research) nominated Jakob Kofler for the Evaluation Talent Award 2024 was “[…] because he simply combines all the skills you need […] for this job in one person in a really incredible way. I’ve never seen anything like it” (Peter Kaufmann).
Jakob Kofler and Peter Kaufmann at the REvaluation Conference 2024
Jakob Kofler’s research focuses on research, technology and innovation policy. He uses systems analysis approaches to examine societal transformation processes and their implications for policy design. He sees this as one of the greatest challenges for evaluation: “dealing with transformative and mission-oriented innovation policy” (Jakob Kofler). New methods are needed to evaluate and monitor such approaches, as transformation processes are not linear.
In order to meet these challenges, Jakob Kofler plans to invest his prize money in further education.
Photos: © Martin Jordan
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