Harlow Consulting has provided a range of research and evaluation support to the CSA Catapult to help them understand their impact. Our initial work for them involved consulting extensively with internal senior stakeholders and external key stakeholders such as Innovate UK via depth interviews and workshops. This data was analysed and combined with our evaluation of their internal management information and details of objectives, strategy etc. to create a bespoke evaluation framework, Theory of Change and implementation plan. We developed a range of bespoke metrics to measure sentiment and impacts in consultation with the Catapult and with Innovate UK.  

With the Catapult’s SLT, we presented the outputs to a committee of experts assembled by (and including) Innovate UK, whereupon the proposed approach was accepted as the optimum way forward for impact evaluation. We provided further advice in relation to assessment of additionality, creation of a comparator group, best sources of secondary data, conversion of data to insights, CRM optimisation, design of evaluation questions and aligned all of this to the overarching Catapult Network’s evaluation framework and common metrics.  

We subsequently undertook their first impact evaluation, using a mix of desk-based research, primary research and analysis of customer surveys. Fieldwork included extensive consultation with internal and external stakeholders, as well as bespoke training to build capacity internally in evaluation, and interviews/surveying of customers to gather detailed feedback.