To improve and strengthen regional development is often subject of political decisions. This is the situation within the European Union, to increase innovation in SMEs. SMEs need access to knowledge, competence and collaboration, in order to increase their opportunities to develop competitiveness in products higher up in the value chain. The increasing rate of change in society also creates needs of decreasing the time from knowledge development to ready products to the market. Ongoing evaluation is prevalent in many research and development projects today in order to follow up the intended results. The ongoing evaluation could contribute to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of a specific innovation project by highlight areas of improvement and needs of development. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how collaboration within research and innovation can be evaluated, using a specific innovation project as an example. Qualitative methods have been used for the data collection and analysis, based on documents, interviews and participation in various activities. An intervention theory is created, as interpreted and structured based on information from documents and interviews. The intervention theory should be further refined, and could be used to select important aspects of the innovation project for the further evaluation. The intervention theory can be used to evaluate the causes and effects, and if the innovation project is reaching its intended final achievements and results.