The REITER project implements the goals of the Horizon 2020 Work Programme “Europe in a Changing World: inclusive, innovative and reflective societies” by contributing to the monitoring and assessment of research and innovation (R&I) policies in Europe and beyond. Broadly speaking, the project seeks to enhance country R&I policy monitoring arrangements already performed by the OECD and European Commission (EC); to put in place a new knowledge management system that supports enhanced analysis of country data and its open accessibility; and to conduct data analysis in support of European R&I policy needs.
The project builds on the OECD’s unique strengths in R&I policy monitoring and analysis. For more than 20 years, the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI), under the aegis of the OECD Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (CSTP), has conducted biennial surveys of STI policies in its member and strategic partner countries. Since 2015, as part of efforts to streamline and reduce the reporting burden for OECD and EU member countries, the survey has been carried out in partnership with the EC’s Directorate-General for Research & Innovation (DG RTD). The survey is branded as the EC-OECD Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP) Survey, and is unique in its scope, nature and coverage. It addresses all areas of STI policy, covering initiatives spread across different ministries and national agencies (e.g. research, education, industry, environment, labour, finance/budget, etc.). It also includes questions specific to the EU’s STI policy agenda. Responses are provided by government officials, with coordination carried out by national delegates of the CSTP and EC’s ERAC (European Research Area Committee).
The survey is large and wide-ranging, reflecting the broad scope of R&I policy. Over time, it had incrementally grown into an overly complicated survey, not helped by the use of weak survey tools, and was challenging for countries to complete and for the OECD and EC to use its data. Furthermore, while countries's responses to the survey were nominally open to anyone to use, in practice, the data was difficult to access. As a result of REITER, the methodology surrounding the administration of the STIP Survey was radically changed. The survey questionnaire was re-designed, streamlined, and firmly structured on R&I policy taxonomies. A new knowledge management system was put in place, consisting of a new survey tool and database, driven by the R&I policy taxonomies. These changes enhanced data collection and storage, and opened up access to the survey data for policy makers and analysts. In addition, data gathered in the 2016 and 2017 editions of the survey were analysed in a series of reports, leading to an understanding of the policy patterns revealed by the data across several topics.
