The innovation policies of the Member States and the Union depend on the existence of a sound statistical basis. The Community Innovation Survey (CIS) provides this basis. It is the main statistical instrument of the Union that allows the monitoring of Europe’s progress in the area of innovation. The CIS creates a better understanding of the innovation process and analyzes the effects of innovation on the economy (on competitiveness, employment, economic growth, trade patterns, etc.).
The CIS has been carried out for the first time in 1992. CIS2 took place in 1996 and CIS3 in 2001. Data gathering and analysis has been supported under the various Community RTD Framework Programmes. Since 2000, the CIS has become a major data source of the “European Innovation Scoreboard”. To ensure the timely updating of the scoreboard, the Commission has asked the Member States to carry out the CIS more frequently.The CIS 4 will be conducted in 2005 and results will be published in 2006. From 2005 onwards the CIS will be carried out on a two-year basis.
Methodology
The methodological basis of the CIS is provided by the “Oslo manual”, a joint publication of Eurostat and the OECD. Data collection is done by the statistical offices or competent research institutes in the Member States. The results of the surveys are treated at national level using a common methodology and further processed by Eurostat to increase cross country comparability. To preserve strict secrecy of firm-level information the micro-level database remains confidential and is only accessible to Eurostat staff. The Oslo manual is currently under revision in order to account for new orientations of European innovation policy. Among other aspects, the next CIS should contribute to a better understanding of the “non-technical” aspects of innovation, such as management techniques, organisational change, design and marketing issues.
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