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Final evaluation report

30th September 2013

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Summary

Premises....................................................................................................................3

1. EVALUATION RESULTS ............................................................................................5

1.1 To collect feedbacks from focus group participants ...............................................5

1.2 To analyse the impact of the project on partners’ organisations ..........................10

1.3 To analyse the social network produced by PACMAn...........................................21

1.4 To analyse satisfaction and sustainability of the project partnership....................25

ANNEXES

Note of presentation of the evaluation system

Focus Group experts’ feedback questionnaire

Ex-ante organisational analysis questionnaire

Report on going evaluation, Valencia Meeting

Ex-post organisational analysis and network sustainability questionnaire

Matrix of comparison ex-ante and ex-post evaluation

Questionnaire Level 1 (QL1)" - Social Network extension and integration between the

project partner and stakeholders/opinion leaders

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Premises This report is aimed at presenting the results of the independent evaluation of the PACMAn project. The evaluation has been developed by Teta Capua, independent evaluator selected by Ervet (Project Leader). The evaluation process started in April 2012 and was concluded in September 2013. The evaluation has its main focus on organisational issues and has been aimed at achieving four objectives:

• To collect feedbacks from focus group participants; • To analyse the impact of the project on partners’ organisation; • To analyse the social network produced by PACMAn; • To analyse satisfaction and sustainability of the project partnership.

The evaluation design and the process of evaluation have been shared with the Project Leader Mrs. Paola Maccani and all the involved project partners (PPs). A note of presentation of the evaluation system (objectives, tools, recipients, timing) has been drafted and sent to the PPs in order to start the evaluation process (see Annex Note of presentation of the evaluation system). The final results have been presented and discussed on 19th September 2013 in Bologna. See the timetable of the evaluation process:

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During the project final meeting, the PPs agreed with the general results presented, but underlined that, since the last detection is mainly dated in June ’13, while many project activities were yet running (i.e. Pilot projects), some of these results are better than represented.

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1. EVALUATION RESULTS 1.1 To collect feedbacks from focus group participants Objectives and tools This objective is aimed at analysing the level of usefulness and satisfaction of the experts involved in the focus groups1. The tool adopted has been a questionnaire sent to each focus group participant by each PP (Annex Focus Group experts’ feedback questionnaire). The filled in questionnaires have been transferred from the PPs to the evaluator for the analysis. Results This analysis didn’t cover the 100% of the participants to the focus group so, consequently, these results have an indicative value. Indeed it is related to 6 focus groups out of 10 and on 31 filled in questionnaires out of 44 participants to the 6 focus groups (see table below):

Here below are the graphs for each question:

1 Every project partner carried out a focus group involving experts (i.e. entrepreneurs, managers, technicians, etc.)

of a specific agrofood segment.

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7

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Conclusion and recommendations In general the opinion of the participants, about satisfaction and usefulness of the focus groups, was positive with the following specification:

- high level of satisfaction for the quality of the focus group, the capacity to manage it and the appropriateness of the attendees in relation to its objectives;

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- high level of satisfaction for the possibility to enlarge their network; - positive opinion of the majority for the usefulness of the final outcome (the

Swot Analysis of the cluster/segment analysed) for them and for their organisation, while 1/3 of them expressed an unclear understanding of it;

- a further request to better understand the practical uses of this result and to be informed in the future about its implementation.

Anyway the final result of the focus group (swot analysis) has been considered very representative of the situation of the segment/cluster analysed. The results of this analysis was presented and shared in the project meeting held in Valencia (Spain) on 18th October 2013. The recommendation given to the PPs was the following: “Each partner should send to the participants a synthesis of the focus group result and its practical uses (need a few slides)”.

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1.2 To analyze the project impact on partner organisations The main evaluation objective is to analyse the organisational changes produced by PACMAn on partner organisations. Specifically this evaluation wants to analyse the changes possibly produced both on hard dimensions (structure, work-processes and activities) and on soft dimensions (strategical and operational objectives to be achieved, relationships among internal organisational units, and personnel professional competences). The analysis has been carried out in two steps:

- Ex-ante organisational analysis - Ex-post organisational analysis

The ex-post questionnaires took in consideration the results of the ex-ante and indeed they have been customized. 1.2.1 Ex-ante organisational analysis Objectives and tools This step aimed at analysing the organisational context of the project partners’, before the start up of PACMAn in October 2010, so as to identify the main organisational dimensions involved by PACMAn project, to better formulate the evaluation questions and to measure the organisational impact of the project. The tool adopted for this analysis was a questionnaire (see Annex Ex-ante organisational analysis questionnaire). The main organisational dimensions analysed have been the following:

- the mission of the partner’s organisation - the strategic objectives in agro-food of the partner’s organisation - the organisational unit in charge of PACMAn, its mission and

work processes, - the other internal units involved in PACMAn implementation, - number and quality of staff members involved in PACMAn

implementation. Results The following results are based on 9 questionnaires out of 10 PPs (Kilkis excluded)2.

Mission The majority of the PPs has a public status (9/10). Only Critt has a private status and a specific mission oriented to the agro-food sector.

2 NB: Impiva sent its questionnaire only after the meeting held in Valencia on 18th of October 2012 so these results

are different from the slides presented during that meeting

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The other PPs (8/9) have a mission focused in general on the territorial or regional development or on research/technology transfer but their research issues aren’t focused on agro-food sector. Strategic objectives on agro-food Not all the PPs had identified objectives in the agro-food sectors, to be achieved independently by PACMAn implementation, before the start of the project (October 2010). From this point of view the partners can be divided into two groups and the contribution of PACMAn is different for each of this two. For the first group (Ervet, InfoMurcia, Critt, Parma, Modena, Impiva/Ivace), having a programming document in October 2010, stating their objectives in the agro-food sector, PACMAn could be a mean for implementing those objectives. For the second group (Adral, Cut, Forth-Help Forward), without specific programming document and objectives on agro-food sector, PACMAn could be a mean to steer their future strategy and activities specifically in the agro-food sector. Unit in charge of PACMAn implementation In general, the organisational units (o.u.) in charge of PACMAN implementation, are not agro-food specialized (6/8). For the PPs whose PACMAn implementation is in charge of units not specialised in the agro-food (Ervet, InfoMurcia, Cut, Adral, Forth-Hep Forward, Impiva/Ivace) PACMAn could be a mean to specialise the organisation in the agro-food sector and in terms of organisational impact, PACMAn could be an opportunity to push/define the organisational specialisation in the agro-food. Other internal units involved in PACMAn implementation The analysis underlined that there are 20 internal organisational units involved in the project over those that are in charge of its implementation. Staff members involved in PACMAn implementation The number of staff members involved in the PACMAn implementation was of 42 units in October 2010. In the table below is reported the number per each PP.

Critt 3

Ervet 7

Adral 5

Parma 3

Cut 5

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In term of types of roles played in the project the situation is the following:

The results of the ex-ante analysis was presented and discussed in the project meeting held in Valencia on 18th of October 2012 (see Annex Report Valencia). The evaluation questions of the ex-post organisational analysis have been

formulated according to these results. 1.2.2 Ex-post organisational analysis Objectives and tools The Ex-post organisational analysis, has been aimed at analysing the impacts produced by PACMAn on the PPs organisational dimensions involved in the project. The tools adopted for this analysis have been a questionnaire and a following interview. The questionnaire has been customized per each partner on the basis of the results of the ex-ante analysis (see Annex, Ex-post organisational analysis and network sustainability questionnaire – Part I). According to the results of the ex-ante analysis, the evaluation questions have

been the following:

1. “Has PACMAn helped Ervet, InfoMurcia, Cut, Adral, Forth-Help

Forward, Impiva/Ivace to specialise their organisation? (I.e: has it been

Modena 3

Infomurcia 4

Forth/Help Forward 10

Impiva 2

Total 42

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created a new organisational unit on agro-food issues or a centre of competence?)

2. “Has PACMAn helped Ervet, InfoMurcia, Critt, Parma, Modena, Impiva/Ivace to achieve their objectives in the ago-food sector?”

3. “Has PACMAn helped PPs to identify new or further objectives to be achieved in the agro-food sector?”

4. Has PACMAn helped the PPs to identify a new work-activity on agro-food sector?”

5. “Has PACMAn changed the relationship (improved or getting worse) between PACMAn implementing unit and those other?”

6. “Has PACMAn increased the professional competences of the working group?”

Results The following results are based on 9 questionnaires out of 10 PPs (Help-Forward excluded) and 7 interviews3. The answers of the PPs have been summarized in a matrix (see Annex, Matrix

of comparison ex-ante/ex-post evaluation).

An overview of the results Question Results “Has PACMAn helped Ervet, InfoMurcia, Cut, Adral, Forth-Help Forward, Impiva/Ivace to specialise their organisation? (I.e: has it been created a new organisational unit on agro-food issues or a centre of competence?)

No

“Has PACMAn helped Ervet, InfoMurcia, Critt, Parma, Modena, Impiva/Ivace to achieve their objectives in the agro-food sector and to identify further objectives in the agro-food sector?”

Yes

“ Has PACMAn helped PPs to identify new or further objectives to be achieved in the agro-food sector?”

Yes

Has PACMAn helped the PPs to identify a new work-activity on agro-food sector?”

Yes, a little

“Has PACMAn changed the relationship (improved or getting worse) between PACMAn implementing unit and those other?”

Yes

“Has PACMAn increased the professional competences of the working group?”

Yes

3 1. Paola Maccani, Ervet, on 24th June 2013; 2. Iphigenia Pavlou, CUT, on 1st July 2013; 3. Thanos

Papotis, Kilkis Chamber of Commerce, on 1st July 2013; 4. Paola Siragusa, Province of Modena, on 1st

July 2013; 5. Sonia Mendes, Infomurcia, on 8th July 2013; 6. Florin Sora, IVACE, 8th July 2013; Cyril

Bertrand, Critt, 12th July 2013.

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Question: “Has PACMAn helped Ervet, InfoMurcia, Cut, Adral, Forth-Hep

Forward, Impiva/Ivace to specialise their organisation?

Answer: no, the project didn’t specialize the PPs organisation on agro-food

issue.

These 6 PPs had not an institutional mission neither an internal unit

specialized on agro-food issues. This question aimed at understanding if

PACMAn acted in the direction to specialize their organisations on agro-food

issue, at least by setting up a new organisational unit or by setting up a centre

of competence (i.e. group of people permanently working on this issue).

In deep, nobody set up this new organisational unit or a centre of

competence.

In some case (Modena or Impiva/Ivace) PPs changed their internal structure

but the motivations are depending on external factors. Question: “Has PACMAn helped Ervet, InfoMurcia, Critt, Parma, Modena,

Impiva/Ivace to achieve their objectives in the agro-food sector?”

Answer: yes, the project helped PPs to reach their agro-food objectives.

Before the start of PACMAn in October 2010, these PPs had a programming

document including one or more agro-food objectives to be achieved.

This question aimed at understanding if PACMAn helped this PPs to achieve

these agro-food objectives.

Ervet, Infomurcia, Critt, Parma, Modena and Ivace stated that PACMAn

helped them to achieve their objectives in the agro-food sector.

In the table below a summary of the objectives should be achieved, stated in

the programming document at October 2010, and the PPs comments about

their achievement:

PP Objectives to be achieved Achievements: comments from PPs

Ervet 1. Internationalization of agro-food chain; 2.

International territorial marketing; 3.

Evaluation, support and information,

communication of Rural Development Plan;

Yes, the first two objectives have been particularly

reached mainly as far as concerns the agrofood

chain in the partner countries involved and in the

networks of relevant players areas.

Infomurcia 1. To promote cooperation by developing

projects of common interest; 2. To favour

access to new market opportunities, resulting

in opportunities and initiatives for economic

development; 3. to present valuable solutions

and turn-key projects by working together

because ”true knowledge is a collective

enterprise”; 4. to provide solutions in product

innovation, internationalization

implementation of new processes and

environmental efficiency.

Yes in terms of achievement of existing strategical

objectives: “in particular objectives 1 and 2 have

been pursued and attaint both at Murcia Region

level and international level. For objective 3, steps

have been undertaken to provoke cooperation

schemes ... New developments have been also

pursued with the aim to provide innovative

solutions to the key actors in the agrofood chain,

more precisely, business cluster and other related

intermediate bodies.”

Critt 1 Enhancing technical skills of agrofood SME’s; Yes certain actions will contribute to enhance

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2 Enhancing innovation projects in Agrofood

sector

technical skills in Agrofood sector. For example we

will edit a catalogue on green packaging best

practices that will be broadcast to agrofood

companies.

Parma 1. Enhancing the governance of the tomato

district; 2. Improving the environmental

sustainability and the competitivity of the local

agro-food sector; 3. Increasing awareness on

food security and food quality

Improved competitiveness of the local processing

tomato agro-food sector was the major achievement

of the Pilot Action of the PACMAn project. It also

helped enhance the governance of the IO Tomato

District.

Modena 1. Promoting the multifunctionality of farms; 2.

Give strength to the production of quality

mountain areas; 3. Promote the sector

agreements in order to support the products of

excellence, including through the trade

promotion

No contribution to strategic objectives achievement

so far, we hope to see visible achievements after the

implementation of the Pilot Actions to Promote the

sector agreements in order to support the products

of excellence, including through the trade

promotion.

PS: During the final meeting held in Bologna on 19th

September Missis Paola Siragusa said that PACMAn

played a great role in order to achieve their agro-

food objectives.

Impiva/Ivace 1.Favoring the intercooperation between the

companies of the agrofood cluster value chain

2.Identifying the differentiation factors of the

supply chain within some of the cluster’s

segments.

The PACMAn project contributed with success to

our two objectives making possible, due to its

structure, the connection and inter-cooperation

with different agro-food clusters involved in the

project. In the same time it has contributed to

gather strategic information about the involved

actors, favouring the inter-cooperation between the

companies of the agro-food cluster.

Question: “Has PACMAn helped PPs to identify new/further objectives to be

achieved in the agro-food sector?”

Answer: yes, PACMAn helped PPs to identify new and further agro-food

objectives to be achieved in the future.

Particularly Ervet, Infomurcia, Critt, Ivace and Kilkis defined new objectives

in the agro-food sector, clearly arising from the activities of PACMAn. Also

emerged an effort in order to achieve these objectives by applying for further

project proposals with a link with the new programming period issues (i.e.

Infomurcia has connected this new project proposal, focused on cluster

cooperation, with the smart specialisation strategy).

In the following table the list of the new objectives, if any, and the PPs

comments:

PP New and further objectives in the agro-food sector: comments from PPs

Ervet Improve the sustainability of the value chain. Necessary the acceptance of the political body.

Infomurcia Strengthening cluster cooperation in the region and in the national scenario.

Promoting and boosting internationalization of clusters.

Critt Increase the awareness on sustainable agrofood companies

Parma One of the government’s goal is to reduce public expenditure by shutting down Provinces or at least

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reducing their role in many sectors. Therefore no further innovative programmes have been planned

for the future.

Modena PACMAn helped Province of Modena to understand possible future objective in the future: necessary

the acceptance of the political body.

Impiva/Ivace New objectives in the agro-food sector, related with “value chain”, “clusters” and “sustainability:

Increasing the profitability of the chain.

Analysing how we can better promote the products and the product information in a way that can lead

to the success of the chain and to the satisfaction of the customer.

To continue with the cluster analysis searching to succeed to obtain new clustering solutions in terms

of different cluster quality measures and classification performance.

To continue to stimulate the companies to improve their sustainability in terms of life cycle assessment

and their social responsibility.

Cut No changes.

Adral No changes.

Adral is developing a new project in agro-food sector

Kilkis To maintain active the network among the stakeholder in the agro-food sector.

Forth_Help

forward

No information about the ex-post situation

Question: Has PACMAn helped the PPs to identify a new work-activity on agro-

food sector?”

Answer: yes, PACMAn helped Critt and Kilkis to identify a new work-activity on

agro-food sector.

This question was aimed at understanding if PPs will introduce a new

constant/routinary activity as a result of PACMAn implementation.

Only Kilkis and Critt decide to update constantly the database of agro-food

actors produced by PACMAn also after the end of this project.

Question: “Has PACMAn changed the relationship (improved or getting worse)

between PACMAn implementing unit and those other?”

Answer: Yes PACMAn contributed to improve the relationship with other

internal organisational unit.

PACMAn improved the relationship between the unit in charge of the

implementation and the other internal units involved in the implementation.

The opinion on the quality of the relationship is very positive in the sense

that on a total of 23 organisational units involved:

- in 2 cases the relationship is very improved (++)

- in 12 case the relationship is improved (+)

- in 9 case the relationship is unchanged (=)

Question: “Has PACMAn increased the professional competences of the

working group?”

Answer: Yes PACMAn helped the staff members, involved in the

implementation, to improve their professional competences.

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Even if the data collected do not cover the total of the PPs (no information

about the staff members involved by Kilkis in the ex-ante and no information

about Forth for the ex-post), the number of staff members working in the

project is for sure increased. On the basis of the information acquired, staff

members increased from 42 of the ex-ante period to 63.

In the graph below the number of staff members working in the ex-ante

phase (blue) and the number in the ex-post phase (red) per each PP:

In the table below the data related to the staff members, distinguished

between ex-ante, ex-post and in relation to the kind of role:

In the table below a summary of the professional competences increased

according to the PPs’ opinions:

Competences area Competences Increasing Specific comments

Foreign languages English *****

Financial accounting *** Ivace: financial reporting,

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competences in monitoring,

analysis, management and

evaluation program

monitoring system

Institutional

communication tools and

methods

*** Ivace: connections with the

mass media

Critt: by developing tools as

internal database, or posters

and other communication tools

Project

management

Partnership Network

management *****

Internationalisation **** Ervet: Internationalisation is

considered as premature

because can be considered only

at the end of the project since it

depends on the project final

outputs that at the moment are

still ongoing.

Research & Development **

Networking ******

Agro-

food/technical

Sustainability ***** Ervet: Life Cycle Thinking and

green packaging

Other Cut: to apply for European project

And a table with the opinions of the PPs: PP Number

of staff

members

Professional competences changes and PPs comments

Cut 6 Yes. “Gained knowledge regarding agro-food which could be helped in future

projects and synergies were created with the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce”.

Improved network methods, know-how on sustainability, learned to apply for new

European project proposals.

Adral 4 Yes. “about communication (English), almost all members of the team developed

this competence in the development of the project; about the financial, institutional

communications tools we kept the competences since already perform this type of

work in other similar projects we work. About Internationalisation, Research &

Development, Networking and Sustainability we have developed this competences

as we go working on specific activities of the project that focuses on these areas.”

InfoMurcia 4 English language – improved

Financial accounting – Improved

Institutional communication tools and methods – equal

Partnership network management - improved

Internationalisation – improved

Research & Development – improved

Networking- improved

Sustainability – Equal

Ervet 10 Professional competences changes

Yes. Competences generally improved:

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Transversal competences are English language, Institutional communication tools

and methods , Partnership network management significantly.

Vertical competences significantly improved: Financial accounting, Networking and

Sustainability (i.e. Life Cycle Thinking. In addition the issue of green packaging is a

further topic that contributed to the increase of internal competences.

Internationalisation is considered as premature because can be considered only at

the end of the project since it depends on the project final outputs that at the

moment are still ongoing.

Kilkis 9 \

Modena 7 Yes. “Especially in the partnership network management and in the financial

management”

Impiva/Ivace 5 Yes. “In terms of language competence- the working group members have improved

the linguistic capacity, fluency (English). In terms of financial accounting the

working group members have gained competences related with financial reporting,

competences in monitoring, analysis, management and evaluation program

monitoring system- Presage. In terms of Institutional communication tools and

methods the working group members have improved the collaborative skills

including developing connections with the mass media partners that participated in

the project. In terms of partnership network management during the project we

learnt about the possibility of creating a partnership culture between different

cultures, how to better work with different information flows, how to create

synergy with the partners and establish a common language.

In terms of Internalization and Networking the main improvements was the

acquisition of a better knowledge of the international agro-food market and the rise

of IMPIVA´s international competence and credibility as a whole, througthe

participation in a project that involved partners form different countries(in the

same time establishing networking with them). From a singular point of view it was

noticed a development of the personal international orientation of the team that

collaborated in the project and as well getting to know the particularities- rule,

norms and values for different country partners.

Critt 4 Yes.

English language, Increased for operational coordinator

Financial accounting, No changes

Institutional communication tools and methods, Possibility to develop tools as

internal database for example, or posters and other communication tools

Partnership network management, No particular development

Internationalisation, Knowledge of new partners and do know the CRITT

Research & Development, No changes

Networking, yes increased networking capacity

Sustainability, yes increased

Parma 4 Main professional competences improved thanks to PACMAn are:

- English Language

- Networking with PACMAn partners

- Networking with institutions not belonging to the project

The top ten of the professional competences increased:

Networking on agro-food******

Sustainability on agro-food *****

Partnership network management*****

English language*****

Internationalisation on agro-food****

Financial accounting***

Institutional communication tools and methods***

Research&Development on agro-food**

Other: to apply for european project*

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Conclusion and recommendations Recommendation n. 1 Persisting a lack of strategic vision. PPs, without a clear mission or objectives focused on agro-food sector, should produce an effort in order to define their future strategy on this issue so as to use these projects for achieving their strategic objectives.

Recommendation n. 2

Since international projects can, positively or negatively, affect internal

organisation, PPs should manage them in order to obtain the best

positive results. It means to plan, manage and evaluate the internal

processes in relation to the project.

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1.3 To analyse the social network produced by PACMAn Objectives and tools Another important objective is to analyse extension of the social network (how many actors have been involved and who), intensity of relationship (how many contacts), sustainability of the relation among PPs and stakeholders/opinion leaders involved thanks to PACMAn project. The tool adopted for this analysis has been a questionnaire (see Annex, "Questionnaire Level 1 (QL1)" - Social Network extension and integration between the project partner and stakeholders/opinion leaders). Results The following results are based on 9 questionnaires out of 10 PPs (Help-Forward excluded). At the moment of the detection on May-June 2013 the total number of

involved stakeholders and opinion leaders is at least 81. The stakeholders

were 56 and the opinion leaders 25.

During the final meeting PPs underlined this number could be higher since

the analysis, dated on June 2013, did not consider the stakeholders and

opinion leaders involved afterwards. Furthermore it should be higher taking

into consideration the missing data of Help-Forward and the plurality of

actors belonging to a consortium or a cluster (i.e. The consortium of

Parmigiano Reggiano involves 27 producers).

The following graph shows which type of actors involved:

The involved actors per PP:

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Here below is a tentative of social network representation with a legend of

different symbols:

23

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Five PPs and some of these actors decided to work together within further

projects or they have an idea to work together in the future.

PPs comments:

Info Murcia carried out a cooperation with Agrofood cluster, Meta Cluster, AML cluster,

Tasocompany and Palec Ecologico company with the following objective “Elaboration of a

project proposal to apply for FP7 call, concerning development of CLUSTERS”. “New pieces

of candidacy for EU funded projects have been prepared over the last couple of years. As for

the agrofood sector, we have submitted for ENPI MED call on clusters, World class clusters,

Regions of Knowledge and most recently, CIP call for cluster and entrepreneurship in

emerging industries. The Agrofood cluster was engaged in all of them.”

Kilkis carried out a cooperation with Municipality of Paionia with the following motivation

“Elaboration of several project proposals to apply for Cooperation Programmes (such as

GREECE-FYROM, etc.)”

Ivace carried out a cooperation with Original Cv company, Terra y Xufa company,

Mancomunitat Taula del Sénia i Associació Territori Sénia with the following motivation

“we plan to have further collaboration in our next events related with the agro-food sector.”

Cut with Cyprus chamber of commerce, Filagrotiki group company and Aphrodite delights

company have an idea for continuing this cooperation “Yes, in the future when similar

projects come up we will cooperate.” or “Could be a potential partner in future projects”.

Parma said that with all 15 stakeholders and opinion leaders involved in the project

“Creating and implementing a new networking between the IO Processing Tomato District

other European Bodies for improving the governance in agrofood supply chain “

Conclusion and recommendations Recommendation n. 3 Each partner should send to the stakeholders and opinion leaders a synthesis of the results of the project and their practical uses. Recommendation n. 4 Try to maintain the social network produced by PACMAn alive i.e. by promoting a periodical meeting or by keeping in touch with them by using knowledge management tools.

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1.4 To analyse satisfaction and sustainability of the project partnership Objectives and tools This section of the evaluation aimed at analysing level of integration among PPs, strengths and weaknesses of the partnership, level of satisfaction for the quality of cooperation among PPs and sustainability of the projects outcomes and partnership. The tool adopted for this analysis has been a questionnaire. (see annex 5, Ex-post organisational analysis and network sustainability questionnaire – Part II). Results The level of satisfaction for the partnership cooperation is positive and very positive. The main remark arising from the questionnaire is about the diversity of the type of PPs in terms of mission, public or private status, level of know-how to face the actions of the project. On the one hand, this diversity has been positive as it enriched the debate, on the other hand it has been mainly negative because produced misunderstanding and difficulty of cooperation too. On this diversity see the specific Partner’s remarks: Critt : “the partners have too different missions, that can sometimes cause problems of

understanding and make losing time in the operational progress of the project”.

Kilkis “the diversity of the types of organisations contributed to a more diversified look

towards the issues of the agro-food sector in the MED area and to a wider range of views,

opinions and outputs/results regarding all the issues the PACMAn project is dealing with. At

the same time, a negative aspect of this project partnership has been the diversity of the

types of organisations acting as project partners in the PACMAn project. This led sometimes

to misunderstandings and confusions in the partnership’s communications, since each

Partner has its own perspective of things. There has also been a fear for a not homogenic

approach in the project’s outcomes but thanks to the contribution and guidelines of the

Lead Partner, these problems and fears proved to be without any significant importance.”

Infomurcia “Further cooperation is much welcome with project partners which have the

same or similar legal status and competencies than ours: public bodies supporting business

development. Project partners attached to Academia provide a less evident interest for us.”

Parma “Not all PACMAn Partners were very familiar with agro-food clusters or directly

involved in supply chain dynamics. Therefore, the PACMAn project, in its first phase, was

largely devoted to get to know each agro-food chain and little time was dedicated to more

practical issues.”

Hereafter a summary of positive and negative elements of this cooperation:

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Positive Negative (Main remark) Diversity of the kind of

PPs and enrichment of the debate and

cooperation.

Quality of the partners quite high in terms

of institution represented

Attention to complete all the outputs

requested in the PACMAn application form.

PPs learned how to address sustainability

by introducing Life Cycle Thinking

Good communication among all PPs

Some partners have been very willing to

share common objectives, helping to reach

important objectives

(Main remark) Diversity of the kind of

PPs and different level of know-how in agro-

food issue that produced misunderstanding

and difficulties of cooperation.

Necessity to distinguish in the e-mail

between sharing of information and project

contents (output, etc)

High turnover of the people that create

fragmentation at communication and

coordination level

Focusing too much on critical points than

on opportunities

Some delay in the development of some

activities

Outputs sustainability. The PPs think that a long list of outputs will last after the end of PACMAn and will continues to be useful. Here below the top ten of this list (* number of pps): Agro-food database****** E-guide for operators***** E-book*** Inter-professional chain agreements/framework agreements*** Pilot action*** GIS tools and maps** Website** Poster critt* Leaflet* Brochure* Transnational marketing cluster “Authentic Mediterranean Concept”* Catalogue of innovative technologies in the agro-food sector* The documents of the questionnaires of companies*

E-book on green packaging* Newsletter* Analysis of the most relevant agro-food segments*

Report on recommendations for sustainable innovative model of Med agro-

Food cluster*

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Maps of the agro-food supply chain* Sustainability of the partnership.

Before PACMAn, There was a relationship among 6 PPs out of the ten involved in the project. This system of relationship among PPs is represented in the graph below.

Ervet seemed to be the main point of reference of the relations with 5 PPs

(Modena, Parma, InfoMurcia, Impiva (now Ivace), Adral.

Instead 4 PPs (Kilkis, Cut, Forth, Critt) are new entry. After PACMAn (at the moment of the last detection in June ’13) some PPs applied for different project proposal or have a will to continue this cooperation. Following some PPs comments about the intention to continue the cooperation: Critt : “yes with Kilkis which has asked us to organize a tour in PACA region for a Leonardo

project”

InfoMurcia “Further cooperation with IMPIVA because of similar legal status and goals,

physical proximity too. Also cooperating more closely with Emilia Romagna partners, in

particular ERVET to whom INFO Murcia has invited for putting together for some EU calls

and who have cooperated with us for the mobilisation of one expert from E.R. attending one

international conference on “Key enabling technologies in the agrofood sector” as part of

our RIS3 strategy. Also the Greek PACMAn colleagues were invited to express interest

together for a piece of consultancy on ERDF and innovation in neighbouring countries.”

Ivace “for the future we will sign Framework agreements with partners so that we can

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continue the collaboration after that the project will finish.”

Ervet “there has recently been 2 proposals for leading new projects closed to the issues

faced in PACMAn. Organisational elements prevented Ervet to accept these requests in this

moment”.

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Hereafter there is the graph representing the current emerging system of relations among PPs. In this moment the main holder/stimulator of the relations seems to be InfoMurcia.

The final game to analyse the partnership sustainability.

A game was played during the final meeting on 19th September in Bologna.

Each PP was invited to express his preferences by answering to this question:

With whom would you like to work with?

Each partner received 9 cards in order to vote - from 1 minimum to 5

maximum – the partners. The vote was anonymous. The cards were put in a

box and after publicly examined in order to understand the PPs ranking. The

results are the following:

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Conclusion and recommendations The outputs produced during the project are considered very useful. The diversity of the partners should be mainly a problem. A big and additional effort was done in order to overcome misunderstanding and to line up the know-how of the partners as to have the possibility to implement the project activities.

The cooperation continues but only for some partners. Probably PACMAn helped each PP to select the PPs with whom continuing to work. Recommendation n. 5 The diversity of the partners should be mainly a problem. For future projects it is strongly suggested to set up a partnership whose institutional missions are consistent with project issues so as to guarantee an high commitment on the project. Recommendation n. 6 The outputs produced during the project are considered very useful. It is strongly suggested to update what can be updated (i.e. agro-food database).