1.
OECD Steering Group for Governance of
International Co-operation on Science, Technology
and Innovation for Global Challenges
STIG
Royal Society and Imperial College
London, October 29 and 30 2012
Per M. Koch
STIG Chair

2.
The Policy Challenges
• Systemic failure consisting of
social, economic, cultural,
biological, technological and/or
environmental factors.
• Impact-chains between the
different global challenges
e.g. climate, energy, water, food
and health.
• May be irreversible tipping
points
• Cannot be adequately
addressed by single actors.
• All are affected
Stockphoto from Photos.com

3.
The new global dimension adds complexity as
well as new possibilities
• Until recently, global STI activities were mainly clustered
in the “triad” (North America, Europe, Japan).
• New countries are appearing on the global STI arena
– Korea as example of successful technological catch
up
– Brazil (aeronautics, biotech),
– China (solar and wind energy)
– India (ICT, wind energy)
– South Africa (coal liquefaction)
–…

4.
The role of
science and
innovation
• STI play a crucial role in
– Understanding impact chains underlying global
challenges
– Understanding interaction between various factors
framing global challenges, including social and
cultural factors.
– Developing solutions

5.
STI Challenges
• Single countries are
not willing to bear
costs of action
• No agreement or
comprehensive
mechanism for
multilateral STI
cooperation in place
• No consolidated
knowledge regarding
the strengths and
weaknesses of
different institutional
settings

6.
Global research and innovation
governance
• There is no world government
• But in many fields of human activities, global
governance structures exist, e.g. :
– Intergovernmental agreements and related
organizations
– International networks of public, semi-
public and private institutions
– Multi-stakeholder initiatives with strong
influence of civil society
– Private governance, e.g. standards imposed
by lead firms in global value chains
– Private and civil initiatives

7.
Policy Challenges
• Develop narratives that makes
both policy makers and the
general public understand the
seriousness of the situation
• Integrate STI in other policy
areas
• Requires a strategic
mobilization of resources that
goes far beyond traditional
hands-off, bottom up, initiatives

8.
STIG Deliveries

9.
The analytical work is complete
• OECD-report published in
June 2012
• General introduction and
summary
– Case Studies
– Crosscutting chapter
on governance

10.
Five governance dimensions used in
the case studies
• Priority setting
• Funding and spending
arrangements
• Knowledge sharing and
intellectual property
• Putting STI into practice
• Capacity building for research
and innovation

11.
Case Studies
1. CGIAR: Consultative Group on
International Agricultural Research
2. Gates: The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation
3. GEO: Group on Earth Observations
4. IAI: Inter-American Institute for Global
Change Research
5. IAEA: The International Atomic Energy
Agency
6. IEA: The International Energy Agency
– Implementing Agreements
7. JPI: EU Joint Programming Initiatives
– Agriculture, Food Security and Climate
Change (FAACCE)
+ 2 mini case studies

12.
The Oslo Workshop on International Co-
operation in Science, Technology and Innovation
to Address Global Challenges , May 18-20 2011
• Participants from all
continents: policy makers,
scientists and experts, NGOs,
businesses
• Arranged by
– The Norwegian Ministry of Education and
Research
– The German Ministry of Education and Research
– The Research Council of Norway
• Presentations and
background paper found at
http://www.pandia.com/stig/

13.
Additional workshops and meetings
• Steering Group Meeting in
Korea 2010
• German workshop on global
challenges 2011
• South African expert
workshop 2011
• Two Norwegian workshops
on global challenges,
energy, water and food
2011
• Royal Society and Imperial
College workshops 2012

14.
Other activities
• An OECD brochure that present highlights from the
report
• A presentation of STIG at a dedicated workshop at
ICSU Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation
for Sustainable Development prior to RIO +20
• A thematic issue of the Journal of the Knowledge
Economy covering governance in 2013
• Other workshops and meetings in member
countries 2012-13

15.
Some recommendations

16.
Broad based
approach
• Go beyond “technology fix”
paradigm
• Understand the socio-cultural
context
• Technologies and solutions are
more likely to be adapted if the
political, economical and cultural
conditions are addressed

17.
Economies of scale
• Exploit the economies
of scale (specialization
and
complementarities)
and scope (savings,
cross-fertilization)
• There should be clear
benefits from co-
operation that exceed
the benefits of acting
alone

18.
Diversity and flexibility
• Respect the diversity
• There is no universal
solution to effective
governance approaches
for international co-
operation in STI
• Allow for shifts to address
arising needs

19.
Policy lessons
• Give compelling reasons to mobilize and
legitimize
• A strong mandate supports commitment
and ownership
• If there is no high level political will,
demand-driven approaches seem most
promising

20.
Communication
• Implement
strategies and
tools for
communication
with
stakeholders
and the public

21.
Governance
• Need for high-level coordination
• Link local, regional, national and
international policy levels
• Link priority setting, budgetary
and implementation issues from
day one
• Develop flexible, informal and
responsive structural
arrangements
• Ensure a combination of bottom-
up and top-down approaches to
secure intelligent agenda- and
priority-setting and avoid bias in
selection process

22.
National agendas
• Effectiveness is enhanced
if aligned with national
research priorities
• Some challenges run
counter to national
agendas
• Convince existing funders
to orient calls to the goals
of international
institutions

23.
Legitimize national funding
• International co-operation leads to higher citation
impact and resulting visibility
• International co-operation give funding, competence-
building, networks and market access in return

24.
Funding and management
• Funding and spending
mechanisms should contain
contingency provisions (cp.
delayed payments etc)
• Harmonize funding of
special projects with core
institutional funding
• Multi-annual funding is
preferable. Alternatively:
Create funds within
agencies

25.
Capacity Building
• Build the competences
and networks needed for
future endeavors
• Include capacity building
in developing as well as
developed countries
• Some duplication is
needed to develop
alternative approaches
• Foster south-south co-
operation

26.
Knowledge sharing and IPR
• No one size fits all solution
• Inventors and innovators may realize
gains while still sharing results
• Prioritize outreach from the research
community to stakeholders
• Acknowledge the needs of the two
tribes of science and policy
• Adapt knowledge sharing and IP
provisions to each phase of the
collaboration life cycle
• Involve industry

27.
More work needed
• Scarcity of conceptual
and empirical research
on the governance of
international
cooperation in STI
• Lack of indicators
• Lack of instruments to
strengthen the
governance framework

28.
Thanks to:
The STIG Steering Group
Robin Batterham, Klaus Matthes, Young-sik Choi of the STIG Bureau
Ken Guy, Yuko Harayama, Iain Gillespie, Ester Basri, Jana Maria Mehrtens, and René Carraz of the OECD Secretariat
The STIG Expert Group led by Chief Scientist Andreas Stamm, The German Development Institute (DIE)
Keith Smith, Imperial College and Laura Dawson, Royal Society
All workshop and seminar participants
Per M. Koch
Innovation Norway
per.koch@innovationnorway.no