PRESS RELEASE BY THE NATIONAL AUDIT OFFICE Performance Audit: A Strategic Evaluation of Malta’s Smart Specialisation Strategy for Research and Innovation

The Auditor General, Mr Charles Deguara, presented the Report highlighted in caption to the Speaker of the House of Representatives Dr Anġlu Farrugia. This performance audit examined the strategic management of Malta's Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3), focusing on the potential contribution through research and innovation. This Strategy is presently led by the Ministry for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation, supported by Xjenza Malta mainly from a monitoring perspective. The Report discusses the extent to which the Strategy's governance, coordination, and evaluative mechanisms have supported Malta's advancement toward a more knowledge-intensive and innovation-driven decision framework.

Malta's S3 is generally aligned with the European Union's Cohesion Policy priorities. The governance arrangements demonstrate a clear commitment to inclusive and participatory stewardship, bringing together different stakeholders particularly through the Thematic Area Committees (TACs). These Committees were generally composed of representatives from different environments namely business, government, academia and civil society.

However, this Review also identified systemic limitations that constrain the Strategy's full operationalisation. The absence of detailed implementation plans supplemented with sound performance metrics and clear financial mapping, resulted in considerable challenges when attempting to assess how the Strategy translated into verifiable outcomes. Although the Strategy signals Malta's strong commitment to embedding smart specialisation principles within the research and innovation ecosystem, the limited articulation of how strategic objectives cascade into measurable deliverables, have reduced its operational traction and constrained its capacity to drive more coordinated implementation.

Consequently, the National Audit Office (NAO) put forward a number of recommendations intended to strengthen the S3's institutional infrastructure, reinforce analytical and foresight capabilities, and enhance the mechanisms through which evidence is systematically embedded into strategic deliberation.

This Report, in its entirety, may be accessed through the NAO website: nao.gov.mt as well as on the NAO Facebook page www.facebook.com/NAOMalta.