The Community Innovation Survey: A new database for innovation
New technologies and innovations play a very important and decisive role for growth, competitiveness and employment. Eurostat and the SPRINT programme of the European Commission (DG XIII) are in the process of implementing a database, the Community Innovation Survey (CIS), which will give access to these economic data collected at European level for the first time. The CIS will be a major breakthrough in data collection and the comparative analysis of innovation activities in European industry. It will provide information on subjects such as: - The main inputs and outputs of innovation; - The obstacles to, and aims of, innovation at company level; - The acquisition and transfer of technology; - R&D cooperation; - Different knowledge sources for innovation; - The relationship between innovation and growth, competitiveness and employment. The database will contain information on at least 25,000 companies and is expected to become operational by the end of 1994. A forthcoming publication, "CIS - Status and perspectives", describes the database and the task of collecting new and extensive data on innovation activities and outputs in the EU manufacturing industry.