SUPPORT TO THE DEVELOPMENT AND ANALYSIS OF AN R AND I POLICY TAXONOMY AND QUESTIONNAIRE - PHASE 2

Project Information

REITER 2

Grant agreement ID: 831433

DOI

10.3030/831433

Project closed

EC signature date 15 January 2019

Start date 1 July 2018

End date 30 June 2020

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Europe In A Changing World - Inclusive, Innovative And Reflective Societies

Total cost

€ 874 147,50

EU contribution

€ 720 000,00

Coordinated by

ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - REITER 2 (SUPPORT TO THE DEVELOPMENT AND ANALYSIS OF AN R AND I POLICY TAXONOMY AND QUESTIONNAIRE - PHASE 2)

Reporting period: 2020-01-01 to 2020-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

REITER 2 built on a first phase of development (in the H2020-funded REITER project) that saw a new knowledge management system put in place to collect and store R&I policy micro-data, using a new online survey tool and database, driven by semantic taxonomies. The second phase of REITER extended this development work, focusing first on raising the quality of data collected on countries R&I policies and then linking it to other data. The project also extended the types of data analysis that can be carried out and is developing new information services, such as decision-support tools. These were enabled by further semantic taxonomy development.

A foremost objective of the second phase of the REITER project has been to raise the quality of STIP Compass data so that policy makers and analysts consider it a reliable open source of harmonised data on countries’ R&I policies and, accordingly, use it extensively in their search, discovery and data analysis activities. Data quality is a multi-dimensional concept, incorporating the accuracy and completeness of data and its timeliness. The project’s second phase “industrialised” data linking to capture a wider variety of data that broadens STIP Compass’s information base, allowing more complex questions to be asked of the data and giving it more context. More broadly, the project reviewed, updated and extended the graphical user interfaces (GUIs) used in STIP Compass, particularly those used in dashboards. Last but not least, the project devoted considerable effort to promote the use of the new information management system among European Union (EU) and OECD member countries and within the secretariats of the OECD and European Commission (EC). The project communicated widely on its resources and outputs, promoting their wide use and uptake and building the database’s reputation as a well-regarded source of reliable open data on countries’ R&I policies. It also monitored the state-of-art in the field with a view to deploying innovative approaches to data collection and analysis in the project’s third phase, which is projected to run over the period 2020-22.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Work Package 1: Raise data quality in the STI Policy Compass
•In consultation with participating countries, the project established an agreed base threshold on the data required for each policy initiative.
•The online monitoring tool and 2019 EC-OECD STIP survey were sent to a wider number of respondents.
•A peer review mechanism was established whereby countries comment on one another’s answers to Policy Debate Questions.
•The online survey application tool was launched in October 2018 to support continuous monitoring of countries’ R&I policies.
•The OECD curated the data collected in the 2017 STIP survey and in the monitoring tool.

Work package 2: STI Policy Compass and linked data
•STIP survey data has been linked to relevant publications from the OECD’s iLibrary database, the EC and other organisations.
•European Semester Country Reports, RIO Country Reports, and other EC publications related to R&I that are published in the EUROPA platform (https://op.europa.eu/) are crawled and linked in STIP Compass.
•Documents are surfaced across several STIP Compass dashboards and through the search interface.
•STIP Compass links and displays periodically released national country data (in the form of twitter and RSS feeds).
•Routines have been put in place to link statistical indicators to the policy data.

Work package 3: Taxonomy development to support data discovery and analysis
•The data model was assessed to identify areas needing adjustment.
•The innovation policy tagging vocabulary has been updated with the latest concepts to reflect the state-of-the-art in R&I policy.
•Statistical indicators were tagged so that they can be linked to the innovation taxonomy and the STIP data model.

Work package 4: Enhance graphical user interfaces of STI Policy Compass
•Country dashboards have been made printable and shareable.
•A new design (more attractive and user-friendly) has been introduced for the policy initiative fiche.
•270 dashboards dedicated to countries’ main funding organisations have been created.

Work package 5: Administer the 2019 EC/OECD STI Policy Survey
•Countries’ feedback was elicited on the questions and design of the 2019 edition of the EC-OECD STIP survey.
•The 2019 edition of the EC-OECD STIP survey has been administered.
•A first round of data curation has checked country responses to “policy debate” questions. A peer-review process was organised whereby survey national contact points could comment on one another’s answers.

Work package 6: Communications and monitoring the state-of-the-art
•The project team organized demonstrations of STIP Compass in Brussels and Paris, discussing with EC and OECD analysts and delegates how it can be used to support their work.
•New technological frontiers have been explored related to digital knowledge management with a view to continuously improving the ways policy data can be sourced, analysed and presented.

Work package 7: Mission-oriented innovation policy in-depth
•A comprehensive conceptual framework has been developed, incorporating the diversity of models for research funding and their main features
•A decision-support tool for the analysis of mission-oriented innovation policies has been launched.

Work package 8: Knowledge transfer policy in-depth
•A detailed taxonomy-ontology has been developed by the OECD-TIP working party around knowledge transfer and co-creation policy practices across OECD countries and beyond.
•A decision-support tool has been launched to provide guidance around knowledge transfer and co-creation, bringing together insights from a wide range of sources.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project is expected to have several impacts. At the highest level, it is expected to enhance the evidence base for R&I policies, which should in turn contribute to better national and European R&I policy and programme design. At more strategic and technical levels, the project is expected to:

(1) Raise the quality of STIP Compass data by agreeing on and enforcing data standards, by incorporating historical policy data into the system, and by introducing continuous monitoring arrangements that capture the latest information on national policies.
(2) Deepen country and expert involvement in the project through regular meetings and consultation.
(3) Further streamline data collection arrangements, first through cooperation between the EC and OECD, which reduces monitoring duplication, and second through new continuous monitoring arrangements that involve a wider array of national policy actors.
(4) Make country monitoring data more accessible to analysts and researchers through improved graphical user interfaces and new taxonomies.
(5) Develop a variety of R&I policy domain taxonomies and ontologies that will significantly strengthen analytical capabilities and improve the use made of country information in research and policy analysis work.
(6) Openly publish all taxonomies and ontologies used in the project so that other analysts and policy makers can use them to structure data in their own data infrastructures.
(7) Vastly expand data linking to capture a wider variety of data that will broaden STIP Compass’s information base.
(8) Further exploit the data using new analytical capabilities to generate useful evidence for national and European R&I policy.

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