The Knowledge in the Making (KNOWMAK) project has developed an interactive tool that allows selected groups of users to visualise and analyse the production of knowledge in the European Research Area, with a particular focus on knowledge related to Societal Grand Challenges (SGC) and Key Enabling Technologies (KET). The tool is available on-line at www.knowmak.eu.
The tool is based on three existing data sources on knowledge production in the European Research Area (ERA), i.e. scientific publications derived from the Web of Science database (CWTS publication database), patents derived from PATSTAT (RISIS patent database) and European projects derived from CORDIS (AIT-EUPRO database). Additionally, the project has developed an experimental dataset concerned with social innovation projects (European Social Innovation Database).
The tool was developed through a co-creation approach that involved a group of lead users early on in the project. The group of lead users was a core group of individuals who are archetypical for potential end user of the KNOWMAK tool in terms of their data/information need, their professional experience, and their affiliation to one of the target groups, i.e. policy-makers, research managers/funders, companies, regional actors, or civil society representatives.
The overall architecture of the KNOWMAK tool is depicted in figure 1. Primary data sources on knowledge production are structured and enriched in specific datasets, like the publication dataset maintained by the CWTS in Leiden; harmonization pertains to the three central integration dimensions in KNOWMAK, i.e. topics, actors and space. From these datasets, a core set of data are extracted and transferred to the KNOWMAK integrated database that feeds the construction of indicators and the on-line visualization tool.
The KNOWMAK project is a joint endeavor of eight partners with complementary expertise in the field of STI studies, i.e. the University of Paris Est Marne la Vallée (UPEM), the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), the University of Leiden (UL), the Politecnico of Milan (POLIMI), the University of Manchester (UMAN), the Zentrum für Soziale Innovation (ZSI), the University of Sheffield (UFSD) and the University of Strathclyde.
The project run from 2017 to 2019, the tool will be further maintained and developed within the Research Infrastructure for Research and Innovation Studies (RISIS2) Horizon 2020 project.
