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Symbolfoto: Das AIT ist Österreichs größte außeruniversitäre Forschungseinrichtung

Effective Policies

Effective Policies

Generating knowledge and preparing decisions

We combine wide-ranging theoretical knowledge about policy and innovation systems with practical experience and requirements in specific fields of technology.

Knowledge of political decision-making processes at all levels is the backbone of our work.
In addition, we support our customers in the design of roadmaps, development of scenarios and agenda-setting in various areas - from personalized healthcare systems to autonomous transportation Systems.

We offer

  • Foresight for policy making: The purpose of foresights is to improve the quality and the effectiveness of policy making, by providing a better understanding of change, future risks and uncertainties. Transdisciplinary foresight helps to strengthen the links between decision-making and relevant stakeholder communities as well as look at new and emerging issues from an integrated and multi-layered perspective.
  • Policy design: the idea of policy design is inextricably linked with the idea of improving government actions through the conscious consideration at the stage of policy formulation of the likely outcomes of policy implementation. We set up process for identifying and assessing possible solutions to policy problems or, to put it another way, explore the various options or alternatives available for addressing a problem.
  • Ex ante impact assessments and ex ante evaluations: The purpose of these is to gather information and carry out analyses which help to ensure that the delivery of policy objectives will be successful, that the instruments used are cost-effective and that reliable evaluation will be subsequently possible. They involve identifying the likely positive and negative impacts of proposed policy actions, enabling informed political judgements to be made about the proposal and identify trade-offs in achieving competing objectives.
  • Interim and ex post evaluations: The purpose of evaluations is to examine the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and impact of a program of limited duration or a policy. Interim evaluations focus on the continued relevance of objectives, and, in the case of expenditure programs with a limited duration, and questions relating to the delivery of initial outputs and the early effects of an Intervention. Ex post evaluations embrace the entire intervention period of a policy or intervention measure, with a special interest in the impacts, efficiency and effectiveness of the intervention. Ex post evaluations also assess how sustainable the realized impacts are and what are the main factors behind success or failure of an intervention.