Frontier Economics’ latest independent report provides key findings from a retrospective impact evaluation of the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult’s activities during its first ten years of operation between April 2013 and March 2023.

ORE Catapult is the UK’s leading technology innovation and research centre for offshore renewable energy. Established in 2013 by the UK Government, ORE is part of a network of Catapults set up by InnovateUK in high growth industries. Its mission is to deliver the UK’s largest clean growth opportunity by accelerating the creation and growth of UK companies in offshore renewable energy.
 
Frontier’s evaluation provides a holistic assessment of the impact of ORE Catapult to date. It captures evidence from the first two five-year periods in which the UK Government provided ORE Catapult with core funding, building on early unpublished evaluations. It also tests the approach developed to evaluate the current Grant Funding Agreement (GFA) period for 2023 to 2028.
 
This theory-based evaluation is structured around nine evaluation questions. These explore ORE Catapult's impact on sector collaboration, technology development, thought leadership, supply chain growth, investment, economic impact, energy supply sustainability, spillovers and regional socio-economic disparities. 

To answer these, we use a contribution analysis approach, drawing on a wide range of qualitative and quantitative evidence sources and analytical approaches to construct a robust contribution claim. The key evidence sources include:

• A beneficiary business survey;
• In-depth case studies highlighting ORE Catapult's support over the period;
• ORE Catapult’s internal monitoring data;
• A counterfactual-based econometric analysis of the impact of ORE Catapult support on business performance (employment and turnover) using linked microdata; and
• A review of past evaluations of ORE Catapult's impact led by Frontier in 2017 and 2019.

Overall, we found that ORE Catapult has delivered significant benefits against each of the evaluation questions. Impact is particularly strong in the areas of collaboration, technology deployment, thought leadership and economic impact. It was somewhat more challenging to evidence impact against energy supply sustainability and regional socio-economic benefits and we found more limited evidence of ORE Catapult’s contribution to supply chain business export-readiness.
 
The evaluation was led by Frontier Economics, in consortium with Frazer Nash Consultancy and BMG Research. The report was commissioned by ORE Catapult.
 
Please click here to read the full report: Evaluation of ORE Catapult Impact, 2013-23