External Final Evaluation for the ERDF funded Reduced Industrial Carbon Emissions (RICE) Op

The Reducing Industrial Carbon Emissions (RICE) operation (https://www.rice.cymru) Reduced Industrial Carbon Emissions (RICE) is a five year, £11.5 million operation under the 2014- 2020 Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO) programme, Priority Axis 1: Research and Innovation. The RICE operation is in direct response to Welsh Government targets for CO2 reduction that cannot be met with present technology, conversely, Welsh industry desperately needs to lower energy costs and raw materials consumption to ensure global competitiveness; which will be capable of initiating and driving significant additional sustainable world -leading research and the creation of new businesses for existing SME's and economic growth through its strategic operation and collaboration with global, regional and local industry stakeholders and world-class academic partners.The RICE team at Swansea University is seeking a professional company/organisation with previous demonstrable experience in conducting project evaluations on similar large projects, in particular ERDF projects.The RICE operation began in 2018 and has undergone an inception and mid-term evaluation in 2019 and 2021, respectively. A final evaluation of the operation is required, using the theory of change logic model developed during the mid-term evaluation, to evaluate against that model and the recent data collected