The overarching goal of this assignment is to prepare the ground for embedding experimentation in National and Regional Partnership Plans from the outset of the 2028–2034 programming period. To this end, the assignment will structurally bring evaluators and programmers to work together, build capacity on both sides, and provide the EU evaluation system with practical experimentation tools that extend beyond the three participating MS. This assignment focuses on investments on energy efficiency measures and shall produce the following outputs: 1. NRPP-ready experimental designs to be implemented in the 2028–2034 programming period in three Member States; 2. a detailed toolkit to support MS in the introduction of experimental designs in 2028-2034 Plans: LEAP Kit (Learning through Experimentation for Adaptive Programming). Energy efficiency is central to the EU’s climate, cohesion, and energy security objectives. Reducing energy consumption across the built environment, industrial processes, district energy networks, and community energy systems contributes directly to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels, and ensuring more resilient and affordable energy supply. All of which are particularly pressing in less developed and transition regions where energy poverty, ageing building stock, and limited private investment capacity make public intervention most necessary. Despite its widespread use, substantial analysis remains to be made in assessing the effectiveness of energy efficiency investments and identifying the conditions under which these generate the expected impact. Experimentation through randomised controlled trials (RCTs) - and the analysis of experiment results to identify the causal effects of interventions - offers the most rigorous way to generate this evidence. Improving the capacity to design and conduct experimental designs is even more important in light of the evolving regulatory context. The Commission proposal for the 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework explicitly promotes policy learning and experimentation as a function of both coordinating and managing authorities (Articles 50 and 51 of the proposed Performance Regulation). DG REGIO’s ambition is that experimental designs and adaptive learning mechanisms will be embedded in the National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs) from the outset of the next programming period.

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