Technopolis Group has evaluated Swedish participation in the International Energy Agency (IEA) Implementation Agreement in the field of Bioenergy. The Swedish Energy Agency is, on behalf of the Government, responsible for the Swedish participation in the implementing agreements and at the time of evaluation, Sweden had participated in 24 of 41 collaborations. The Energy Agency’s total funding of participation in IEA Bioenergy amounted to SEK 6.3 million during the programming period 2010-2012. Of this, 49 per cent was compensation to the national representatives, and the remaining 51 per cent (3.25 million) was the Swedish membership fee to the IEA. Overall, experts and interviewees in this evaluation assessed that the activities in the different tasks work well. There may be different views on issues between management and the participants, but the dissemination of information and communication within the annexes works well and there are opportunities for representatives to provide input to the task management. Some of the tasks’ problem areas are close, which means that there are also contacts and interactions between them. There is, however, room for more interaction between the Energy Agency and the local representative on information regarding issues that Sweden pursues in the Executive Committee. The national representatives also expressed the need to meet more regularly at the national level to discuss common problems and how the Swedish participation can be coordinated and developed. IEA Bioenergy is seen by most respondents as a cost-effective way to conduct international co-operation and knowledge exchange on bioenergy. The activities are described as a way for Sweden to add value to national initiatives by highlighting it in an international context, at the same time as Sweden has access to a tremendous amount of knowledge produced in the systems of research and business development in bioenergy in other member countries. This way there is significant leverage from resources that the Energy Agency provides for the Swedish participation. Transfer and dissemination of knowledge is regarded by most as the most valuable result of the operations in the tasks, which could benefit national stakeholders and clients in several ways. Typically this is done through mailing lists and newsletters that the national representatives compile after each meeting and distribute in their respective networks. Results may also be reported in established collaboration groups, which are part of the regular activities of the organisations in which the representatives are active. Finally, there is some external participation from Sweden in addition to the national representatives in the task meetings.

AnnaKarin Swenning