Assessing the impacts of public research

1. ASSESSING THE IMPACTS
OF PUBLIC RESEARCH
Science and Technology Policy Division
OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation
Project description

2. Context and project objectives
Provide new evidence on the
impacts of public research (and its
policies) on innovation
Exchanging ´best practices´ in
evaluation of public research policies
1
2
Project conducted in the context of the Knowledge
Triangle Project, implemented under auspices of OECD
TIP Working Party, and Committee for Scientific and
Technological Policy (CSTP).
Project objectivesContext
Increased need for evidence
on the impacts of public
research in a context of:
 Increasing need for knowledge
for competitiveness
 High growth potential of many
science-based activities
 Tight public budgets to fund
research and science
2

3. Policy questions and activities
Are there complementarities or trade-offs
between the education, research and
innovation roles of universities?
How do public research policies differ across
countries and what is the impact on
outcomes?
1
2
What are the contributions of research in
different scientific disciplines to
industry?
3
Project activity
1. Characterising different
university systems and
their impacts
2. Mapping public
research policies
3. Assessing the
contributions of specific
scientific disciplines to
industrial innovation
3
(see detailed description
of activities in slides 4-6)

4. 4
Characterising different university
systems and their impacts
Activity overview
 Heterogeneity of institutions and
their roles  policy and evaluation
implications
 Empirical assessment based on data
for US and European universities
 Topics for analysis:
1. Characterisation of different
national university systems
2. Characteristics of university systems
and impacts on innovation at
regional level
1
University
Education
InnovationResearch
Providing descriptive and econometric evidence on
universities’ contribution to innovation and impacts
Objective

5. Mapping public research policies
Activity overview
 Map differences in qualitative aspects of
public research policies for systematic
comparisons across countries
 Themes: governance of public research
and industry-research linkages
 Obtaining evidence from existing data
sources (OECD Innovation Policy Reviews,
OECD STI Policy Outlook) for most OECD
countries
2
5
Mapping differences in relevant policy
approaches across countries
Objectives
Providing evidence of their impacts on the
contributions of public research policies

6. Assessing the contributions of specific
scientific disciplines to industrial innovation
6
Provide cross-country evidence on science-industry linkages,
including hiring patterns of graduates from different disciplines by
different industries
Discuss methodologies for best conducting such assessments
Objectives
Activity overview
 In-depth analysis on interactions
(including direction and intensity)
between specific scientific fields &
economic sectors
 Identification of scientific fields
contributing most to specific sectors
 Methodologies to enable
systematic & cross-country analysis
of science-industry links
Industry
sectors
Interactions
Scientific
fields
Innovation
3

7. Exchange on impact assessment
 Organisation of workshops on “Impact Assessment of Public Research
Policies”
 2-3 May 2016, Paris, France
 27-28 April 2016, Lisbon, Portugal
 Exchange of information on project and its findings through the Community of
Practice (CoP) on Impact Assessment on the OECD-World Bank Innovation
Policy Platform
7

8. Project website:
http://www.oecd.org/sti/inno/impact-assessment-public.htm
Innovation Policy Platform- Impact Assessment of
Innovation Policy
https://www.innovationpolicyplatform.org/impact-assessment-
innovation-policy-oecd-project
Contact:
Caroline Paunov (caroline.paunov@oecd.org)
8
Further information