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«Science andInnovation PolicyKEY CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

MEETING OF THE OECD COMMITTEE FOR SCIENTIFICAND TECHNOLOGICAL POLICY AT MINISTERIAL LEVEL29-30 JANUARY 2004

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SCIENCE AND INNOVATION POLICY

Key Challenges and Opportunities

Meeting of the OECD Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy

at Ministerial Level29-30 January 2004

ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT

ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATIONAND DEVELOPMENT

Pursuant to Article 1 of the Convention signed in Paris on 14th December 1960,and which came into force on 30th September 1961, the Organisation for EconomicCo-operation and Development (OECD) shall promote policies designed:

– to achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and employment and arising standard of living in member countries, while maintaining financialstability, and thus to contribute to the development of the world economy;

– to contribute to sound economic expansion in member as well as non-membercountries in the process of economic development; and

– to contribute to the expansion of world trade on a multilateral, non-discriminatory basis in accordance with international obligations.

The original member countries of the OECD are Austria, Belgium, Canada,Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, theNetherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the UnitedKingdom and the United States. The following countries became memberssubsequently through accession at the dates indicated hereafter: Japan(28th April 1964), Finland (28th January 1969), Australia (7th June 1971), NewZealand (29th May 1973), Mexico (18th May 1994), the Czech Republic(21st December 1995), Hungary (7th May 1996), Poland (22nd November 1996),Korea (12th December 1996) and the Slovak Republic (14th December 2000). TheCommission of the European Communities takes part in the work of the OECD(Article 13 of the OECD Convention).

Publié en français sous le titre :

POLITIQUES DE LA SCIENCE ET DE L’INNOVATION

Principaux défis et opportunités

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© OECD 2004

Table of Contents

Introduction................................................................................................................................. 5

Public research systems face new challenges ..................................................................... 6Increasing pressures for public research to address economic and social needs.......... 7Responding to new challenges.............................................................................................. 13Notes......................................................................................................................................... 16

The Interface between Science and Innovation .................................................................. 17

Science, innovation and economic performance ................................................................ 17Enhancing the interface between science and industry .................................................... 25Notes......................................................................................................................................... 29

Fostering the Development and Mobility of Human Resources in Science and Technology .......................................................................................................................... 31

Innovation drives demand for scientific and technological talent ................................... 31The future supply of S&T graduates is at risk...................................................................... 34Improving labour markets for the S&T workforce................................................................ 35Making S&T policies more responsive to changing demand ............................................ 39Improving statistical information on human resources in science and technology........ 43Notes......................................................................................................................................... 44

Global Opportunities and Challenges .................................................................................... 45

Prospects for international collaboration for future accelerator-based facilities in high-energy physics ........................................................................................................ 46

Fostering international co-operation in the emerging field of neuroinformatics ........... 47International access to publicly funded research data ...................................................... 49Enhancing sustainability through international S&T co-operation and bio-based

technologies......................................................................................................................... 50Biological resource centres .................................................................................................... 52Notes......................................................................................................................................... 54

List of Figures

1. Public and private shares in total R&D funding, 1990-2001 ............................................. 82. Business funding of public R&D, 1990-2000, millions of 1995 USD PPPs............................. 83. Science linkage in G7 countries, for all patents, 1985-2002.............................................. 174. Researchers per thousand total employment, 2001.......................................................... 335. Foreign and foreign-born workers in the highly skilled workforce .................................. 37

5

Introduction

Scientific and technological advances improve social well-being but may lead to public debate about potential risks.

Science and technology (S&T) influence society asnever before. Scientific achievements continue to pushback the frontier of knowledge and increasingly contributeto the technological progress that affects how we live andwork. New technologies help to protect the environment, tobuild safer homes, schools and factories, and to developenergy-saving transport systems. Advances in genetics savelives and improve health standards throughout the world.Information and communications technologies (ICT) haveenhanced productivity in the advanced economies andmade it possible for a greater number of individuals, firmsand countries to take part in the knowledge-based econ-omy. Continuing progress in biotechnology, nanotechnol-ogy and ICT, including broadband technologies, promisesfurther improvements in living standards and economicperformance. These scientific and technological advancesare not without risks, however. Technologies that can beused to save lives and create jobs can potentially be usedto harm populations and disrupt economies. Today, scienceand technology foment debates within society on issuesranging from genetically modified foods and nuclear energyto biometric identification.

Governments need to made public research more efficient, foster the diffusion of knowledge and address the interests of a more diversified set of stakeholders.

Ensuring that science and technology continue to pro-vide solutions to economic, health and environmental chal-lenges while minimising potential risks requires OECDgovernments to improve the efficiency of public researchand to facilitate the translation of research into commercialrealities. They need to enhance incentives for businessR&D, foster closer interaction between universities, govern-ment labs, firms and civil society, encourage the develop-ment of human resources in science and technology and

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Science and Innovation Policy: Key Challenges and Opportunities

craft intellectual property rights (IPR) regimes that rewardinvestments in innovation while encouraging the dissemi-nation of scientific and technological knowledge. Such chal-lenges will need to be addressed in a way that reflects theneeds and interests of a growing number of stakeholders ingovernment, academia, industry and civil society at large.This report draws on the results of the OECD’s work on sci-ence and technology to provide a basis for discussions atthe Meeting of the Committee for Scientific and Technologi-cal Policy at Ministerial level on 29-30 January 2004.

Public research systems face new challenges

Government’s rolesin funding public

research andproviding incentives

to private R&D areevolving…

Governments play an important role in national inno-vation systems. Traditionally, their missions in funding andperforming research have been to expand the pool of sci-entific knowledge for the benefit of society at large and tosupport R&D activities in areas where market mechanismswere inappropriate or insufficient to respond to socialdemands or meet specific government objectives. In OECDcountries, fulfilment of these missions formed the basis of asocial contract that bound science and society and pro-vided the main rationale for public investment in scientificresearch, mainly in universities and government laborato-ries, but also stimulated business expenditure on R&D. Inthis context, governance of the public research enterprisewas largely entrusted to governments and to the scientificcommunity itself.

… as science andinnovation systems

face newchallenges…

Over time, and especially in the last decade, sciencesystems in most OECD countries have faced new chal-lenges which go beyond the important and recurrent issueof ensuring the long-term sustainability of the researchenterprise, notably as regards basic science. These chal-lenges have called into question the prevailing social con-tract between science and society and pressed for reforms,or at least reconsideration, of the government’s role in sup-porting research and of the governance of science systems.As a recent OECD publication indicates,1 these challengesare broadly of two types: pressures for science systems torespond better to a more diverse set of stakeholders andthe need to adapt to changes in the processes of knowl-

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Introduction

edge creation and transfer. These have seen a shift from anorganisational model based on scientific disciplines to onethat places a premium on multidisciplinarity, institutionalnetworking and a blurring between curiosity-driven andproblem-oriented research.

… which call for reforms in the governance of public research institutions and greater attention to the interface between science and innovation.

Responses to these challenges affect the decision-making processes that govern the setting of research priori-ties, the allocation of funds to the public and privateresearch sectors and the management of research institu-tions. They must address efficiently the concerns of thediverse stakeholders in science and innovation systems.Greater attention needs to be given to various issues, mostprominently the interface between science systems andindustrial innovation, human resources for science, technol-ogy and innovation, and international S&T collaborationbetween and among developed and developing countries.

Increasing pressures for public research to address economic and social needs

As business and civil society become more active stakeholders, public research is expected to become more accountable and outcome-oriented.

The business sector and civil society in general havebecome more active stakeholders in the public researchenterprise. Against a background of budgetary constraintsand the rising costs of research, there has been greaterpressure on public research to increase its contribution toinnovation, economic performance and the fulfilment ofsocial needs. The business sector and society at large aremaking legitimate demands for greater transparency andinvolvement in the setting of research priorities, and formore accountability in terms of the efficacy of publicresearch investments. As a result, governments are led todevelop more outcome-oriented approaches to the gover-nance of science systems and the allocation of governmentresearch funding, but must continue to maintain a healthyand sustainable science base.

Economic growth

Public research has had positive effects on growth…

There is significant evidence, including some providedby the OECD,2 of the positive effects of public-sector R&Don growth and productivity and of the leverage effects ofpublic research expenditures on those of the business sec-

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tor. Notwithstanding government’s declining share in totalR&D expenditures in OECD countries, public research isexpected to enhance its role in fostering innovation in knowl-edge-based economies (Figure 1). Indeed, as innovationbecomes more science-intensive and firms increasinglyacquire scientific and technical knowledge from externalsources, businesses make more intensive use of publicresearch. They increasingly fund it directly (Figure 2) andcollaborate more with public research institutions. Thisresults in a growing share of patents owned jointly by inven-tors from the public and private sectors. New patterns ofindustry-science relationships are further encouraged by theexpansion of public/private partnerships programmes inmany OECD countries.

… but societyexpects more

targeted outcomesfrom public

research.

While society at large reaps the benefits of innovation-led growth and, consequently, of the role that publicresearch plays in that process, civil society’s demands aremore targeted and reflect increasing pressures for publicresearch to address specific and increasingly important

75 9 000

%

65

55

45

35

251990 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 2000 01

8 000

7 000

6 000

5 000

4 000

3 000

2 000

1 000

01990 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 2000 01

Higher education GovernmentBusiness sector Government

Figure 1. Public and private shares in total R&D funding, 1990-2001

Figure 2. Business funding of public R&D, 1990-2001, millions of 1995 USD PPPs

Source: OECD, Main Science and Technology Indicators, September 2003.

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Introduction

social needs such as better health, cleaner environments,and improved safety and security.

Better health

Society places high priority on health and the treatment of disease,…

With ageing populations in most OECD countries andadvances in life sciences that have increased the prospectsof treating heretofore incurable diseases, health figuresprominently among the areas in which society expects majorimprovements in well-being from R&D, particularly when it isperformed in the public sector or through public funding.Trust in and emphasis on public-sector health researchreflect a recognition that many of the most dramatic scientificadvances in the life sciences have emanated from publicresearch institutions and that the development of new thera-pies by the private sector, notably those based on biotech-nologies, would hardly have been possible without it. Thepublic is also increasingly aware that treatment for theso-called orphan diseases, for which industry lacksthe necessary economic incentives, requires public researchor strong government incentives for private-sector R&D.More generally, diseases related to the deterioration of theenvironment in developed countries and to pandemics inmany developing ones are social problems that affect thehealth and well-being of populations. Finally, there is greatersocial demand for research-based regulations and testingprotocols for the development and commercialisation ofdrugs or other products that can affect public health.

… and R&D budgets for health research have increased in many OECD countries.

In response to the high social priority given to health, anumber of OECD governments have increased R&D budgetsfor this sector or increased its share in total R&D budgets.3

Mounting health expenditures in OECD countries further moti-vate medical research aimed not only to develop new thera-pies but also to find more cost-effective ones. The share oftotal business research expenditures devoted to health-related research in the pharmaceutical and biotechnologyindustries has also grown significantly. In fact, after a period inwhich the potential returns to private R&D investment inhealth-related biotechnology were uncertain, public and pri-vate research now work jointly to respond to social prioritiesand to achieve mutual leveraging of public and private R&Dexpenditures in the health sector. Beyond this complementar-

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ity, however, differences between public and private interestsin health-related R&D remain. They have to do with the man-agement of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the biotech-nology sector. In some instances – as in the case of inventionsfor which there is no technological substitute and whose pro-tection can therefore block follow-on research – the scope ofinventions protected by patents and the management of theirproperty rights may hinder the diffusion of knowledge in thelife sciences, although it is increasingly clear that patents, tothe extent they are licensed, also provide an important vehi-cle for disseminating knowledge.

Sustainable development

Society alsodemands greater

public researchefforts to achieve

sustainabledevelopment.

Sustainable development is another area with strongsocial demand for greater public research. In its broadestsense, as now widely recognised, sustainable developmentencompasses interrelated economic, environmental andsocial issues which, for reasons of market or systemic failure,call for some kind of government intervention, in particular inthe area of R&D. Sustainable development requires thatresources be used in a much more efficient way and that newtechnologies emerge that radically alter the way human needsare met. Only rapid scientific and technological advances canmeet this demand. Biotechnology, for example, is a significantdriver of sustainable development. Sustainable developmentand innovation are thus interdependent.

Meeting long-termand global

environmentalchallenges calls for

multidisciplinaryresearch,…

The private sector lacks sufficient incentives to invest inR&D that would lead to innovations that could significantly cur-tail the long-term adverse effects of current production pro-cesses on the long-term availability of natural resources andthereby reduce economic and social costs to future generations.Similarly, the alleviation of environmental problems created inthe process of economic growth often calls for the creation anddiffusion of scientific knowledge of a multidisciplinary naturethat the private sector has little incentive to develop – at leastalone – and that the public sector can best promote.

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Introduction

… greaterinternational science

and technologyco-operation, notablywith less developed

countries,…

Sustainable development is a global concern as devel-oping countries grow more rapidly than OECD membercountries. These countries still lack the capacity to generatethe necessary knowledge and technology to make theirgrowth sustainable. Much of the required knowledge andinnovation can be developed through co-operation withOECD member countries in research and innovation. Also,global issues such as climate change and loss of biodiversitycan only be addressed through international scientific andtechnological co-operation with non-member economies.

… and innovative approaches to the organisation and funding of research.

Civil society in OECD countries is increasingly awarethat the issue of sustainable development goes wellbeyond protection of the environment. The public recogn-ises that while economic incentives and regulatorymeasures may alleviate or solve the more visibleenvironmental problems, notably through technologicalmodifications undertaken by business, engaging econo-mies on a path of sustainable development requires R&Defforts in which public research institutions, at national andglobal levels, should play a leading role. Given the com-plexity and the often multidisciplinary nature of theresearch problems involved, translating social pressureinto the efficient organisation and funding of research is adifficult task that requires innovative approaches on thepart of governments.

Enhanced security and safety

New technologies can respond to increasing social concerns about safety and security…

Finally, among the mounting social pressures on publicresearch orientations, increasing concern for collective safetyand security is not the least, whether for physical securityagainst conventional weapons or weapons of mass destruc-tion, travel and cargo transport security, bio-security againstinfectious diseases or cybersecurity. Three examples illus-trate these concerns:

… such as the risks of transborder diffusion of epidemics,…

• The recent SARS epidemic demonstrated that therapid diffusion of viral diseases associated with theincreasing volume of international travel poses newthreats to public safety. Restrictions on cross-borderflows of people or quarantines imposed on affected

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persons are contingent, precautionary measures thatdo not get to the root of the problem. The publicdemands that governments, as caretakers of publicsafety, devote more research resources to protectingagainst this type of risk. While this risk is not in itselfnew, its magnitude and probability of occurrence haveincreased with the globalisation of human activities.

… the disseminationof biological,

chemical or nuclearweapons…

• In the aftermath of the traumatic shock of 11 Septem-ber 2001, concerns about collective security issueshave increased significantly in government, the busi-ness sector and society at large. There have beenmounting fears that lethal weapons based on biolog-ical, chemical or nuclear technologies that canendanger the lives of large populations may fall intothe hands of ill-intentioned individuals and groupsthat seek to destabilise democratic societies andtheir economies. It is also more widely recognisedthat more widespread and readily available conven-tional weapons can have devastating effects. Tradi-tional measures for increasing security via controlsand available technologies seem insufficient toaddress such threats and can have adverse effects oncivil liberties. As collective security is a public goal,greater public and private research efforts areneeded to develop new science-based technologiesthat can help detect and track potentially lethal bio-chemical products and fissile materials, facilitate themonitoring of transborder flows of people, or, likebiometrics, improve the efficiency of identity checksat borders.

… or the spread ofcomputer viruses

and the vulnerabilityof communications

networks.

• The rapid spread of computer viruses, worms andother malicious code across the Internet hashighlighted the vulnerability of public informationand communications networks to hostile attacks. Associety becomes increasingly dependent on suchnetworks for a range of business, social and personalactivities, cybersecurity concerns have mounted. Theimportance of data networks in providing a growingrange of basic services – communications, energydistribution and financial transactions to name a

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Introduction

few – further highlights the importance of theseconcerns. The OECD has contributed to solving suchproblems, for example through revised securityguidelines for networked systems that call for astronger culture of security among users. However,further work is needed. There is a clear role forpublic and private-sector efforts to develop anddeploy new technological solutions that can improvecybersecurity without unduly sacrificing ease of useand personal privacy.

Advice on science-based issues

The public research system plays an important role in providing objective scientific advice on potential risks.

As society increasingly influences priority setting andthe management of public research and requires moreaccountability, it also demands that the public researchsector continue to act as purveyor of independent scientificadvice. While society at large reaps benefits from innovation-led growth and consequently from the role played bypublic research in that process, science-based technologi-cal advances can raise important ethical issues and ques-tions about possibly adverse consequences for human lifeor the environment. Given the potential interest in rapidcommercialisation of new products derived from such tech-nological advances (notably in the areas of health, food andagriculture), civil society legitimately expects governmentsto pay greater attention to potential risks and the publicresearch system to provide balanced, objective advice.

Responding to new challenges

Today’s S&T policies are called upon to…

While the importance of public science’s contributionsto economic and social objectives has been recognised fordecades,4 the context in which it operates has continued toevolve. The changes give renewed importance to certainfundamental elements of innovation systems which helpscience and technology to meet the challenges of economicgrowth, health, sustainable development, security andsafety, and a host of others.

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… foster science-industry linkages, notably through more appropriate forms of governance of public research,…

• Science-innovation interface. Changing innovation processesand trends in the division of labour between theprivate and public sectors have brought out the needfor strong industry-science linkages. Such linkagesserve both to facilitate industry’s uptake andcommercialisation of public-sector research results(whether by existing firms or start-ups) and to ensurethat research performed in the public sector isattuned to social and economic problems. Science-innovation linkages can take many forms, fromcontract and collaborative research and transfers ofpersonnel to technology licences and the creation ofspin-off firms. Government policies and regulations,especially those related to governance of publicresearch organisations, have a significant influence onthe effectiveness of these various channels.

… ensure that IPRregimes encourage

investmentin innovation,…

• Intellectual property rights. Patenting has become morewidely used to protect intellectual property and firms’competitive advantage. This trend has beenreinforced by changes in patent regimes that haveexpanded patentability to new types of inventionsand strengthened enforcement of patent rights. At thesame time, the shift to more collaborative forms ofinnovation has stimulated the expansion of marketsfor technology through which technologies arelicensed or shared. Public research organisationshave also been encouraged by governments, if notrequired, to patent their inventions and attempt tolicense them to industry in order to promote theircommercialisation. Ensuring that IPR regimesencourage investment in innovation while fosteringthe diffusion of scientific and technical knowledgeand bolstering competition remains a continuingchallenge for policy makers.

… promote thedevelopment and

mobility of humanresources in science

and technology,…

• Human resources for science, technology and innovation.Qualified scientists and engineers are the foundationof all scientific and technological endeavours in thepublic and private sectors. Increased demand forscientific advances and technological innovationcontinues to strain supplies of trained graduates, and

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Introduction

the rapid pace of technological innovation inducessignificant swings in industry demand for scientistsand engineers, and for specific skills. More mobilehuman resources – between the public and privatesectors, as well as internationally – are viewed as animportant aspect of efforts to diffuse scientific andtechnological knowledge. However, their mobility canbe impeded by labour regulations and practices inthe public and private sectors. Policy makers arelooking into a variety of measures to help increasegraduation rates, mobility and the relevance ofeducational programmes.

… enhance international co-operation in S&T and facilitate the dissemination of and access to publicly financed research results.

• International co-operation. Issues of health, sustainabledevelopment, safety, security and economicperformance are international by nature becausethey raise problems that span the globe and theirsolutions call for international co-operation. Whilescientific and technological research to addressthese problems often takes place within nationalR&D programmes, there are compelling reasons toforge international consensus and harness thediverse capabilities of many nations to reachsolutions. The diffusion of publicly financed researchresu l t s i s a n im por tant s tep in fac i l i ta t inginternational co-operation and improving theefficiency and effectiveness of the global scientificenterprise. Efforts to remove unnecessary barriers tosuch knowledge flows are an important step inaddressing these and other issues.

Governments work with industry, civil society and other governments as they wrestle with these issues.

These various issues lie at the heart of current debatesabout science, technology and innovation policy. Govern-ments continue to wrestle with questions of how best torestructure and reform public research organisations toimprove their contributions to social and economic prob-lems without sacrificing the objectivity and independenceof their advice and their ability to pursue curiosity-basedresearch. Governments are also working with industry andcivil society to improve the attractiveness of scientific andtechnological careers to students and to improve prospectsfor mobility. In bilateral and multilateral settings, they

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increasingly work with other governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to foster internationalco-operation on issues of global concern. Each of these top-ics will be addressed in the context of the meeting of theOECD Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy atMinisterial level and will be further considered in the fol-lowing pages.

Notes

1. Governance of Public Research: Toward Better Practice (OECD, 2003).

2. Science, Technology and Industry Outlook – Drivers of Growth: Information Technology, Innovationand Entrepreneurship (OECD, 2001).

3. In 2001 OECD governments spent more than USD 25 billion for health-related R&D.Between 1995 and 2001 health R&D appropriations increased on average by 9% everyyear in the OECD area. The US government remains the major contributor, accountingfor three-quarters of total OECD health-related R&D expenditures. US appropriationshave continued to grow faster than those in many countries. During this period, theNational Institutes of Health (NIH) budget expanded by 15% annually.

4. In his classic 1945 treatise, Science: The Endless Frontier, Vannevar Bush argued for stronggovernment support of basic science to stimulate economic performance, create jobsand contribute to improved health and national security.

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The Interface between Science and Innovation

Science, innovation and economic performance

Science contributes more directly to innovation, economic performance and social change,…

Innovation has become a key driver of sustainable eco-nomic growth and a necessary part of the response to manysocial needs. The determinants of innovative performance arealso evolving, reflecting new patterns of knowledge creation,dissemination and appropriation. Science contributes moreregularly and more directly to industrial innovation today thanin the past, as reflected in the growing number of referencesin patent applications to scientific literature (Figure 3).The changing nature of scientific research makes earlier

Figure 3. Science linkage in G7 countries, for all patents, 1985-2002Measured by the average number of scientific papers cited in US-issued patents

Source: CHI Research.

4.0

3.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

01985 86 200087 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 01 02

Canada United States United Kingdom France

Italy Germany Japan

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distinctions between basic and applied research less clearand less policy-relevant. In many fields, research is moreinterdisciplinary and curiosity-driven, and mission-orientedand profit-driven R&D are more interdependent. An effectiveinterface between innovation and science systems is thereforemore necessary than ever to reap broad economic and socialbenefits from public and private investments in research, toensure the vitality and quality of the science system itself, andto improve public understanding and social acceptance of sci-entific and technological progress.

… and changinginnovation patterns

require new types ofscience linkages.

OECD work has identified developments in both the sup-ply of and demand for knowledge that challenge establishedmodes of governance and divisions of labour within theresearch enterprise. They call for more intense and flexiblerelationships between public and private research performersat regional, national and global levels, and they create newavenues for increased and more fruitful interaction.

Innovation occurs at the public-private and disciplinary boundaries

Many successfulinnovations derive

from publicinvestments in

science,…

Many high-technology commercial successes and fun-damental innovations with deep and positive socialimpacts had their roots in public research and came fromfindings that were impossible to foresee. Fundamentalinnovations such as the World Wide Web and the Webbrowser emerged, not from competitive market processes,but largely from government-funded defence research con-ducted in universities, industry and government laborato-ries. Important ICT innovations such as computertimesharing, inter-networking, computer work stations,graphical user interfaces, e-mail, parallel computing andrelational databases all involved significant defence R&Don novel types of computing systems. Much of the R&D wasconducted as part of government programmes, in somecases after the market had abandoned the research.

… and researchfrequently takes

place at disciplinaryand public-private

boundaries.

The role of publicly funded research in initiating newwaves of revolutionary technologies, e.g. in ICT, biotechnol-ogy and nanotechnology, is likely to remain critical. Work inthese and other socially important areas tends to be multi-disciplinary, and innovation often requires mobilising the

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complementary competencies of the public and privateresearch sectors, e.g. through public/private partnerships(P/PPs). In general, time from academic research to indus-trial practice is shortening,1 and in some fields, academicand industrial research are converging. Much of the work inlarge industrial research laboratories and in small, high-technology start-ups is at the cutting edge of the search fornew knowledge. For their part, university-based scientistsmay find themselves exploring the commercial applicationsof their discoveries almost as soon as they are made. A casein point is the branch of biology known as structural genom-ics, in which the academic and industrial communities havelaunched initiatives almost simultaneously.2

Tapping outside sources of knowledge and exploiting intellectual property rights

Firms increasingly seek scientific and technical knowledge from external sources,…

As innovation has become a more important source ofcompetitive advantage and business investment in R&Dand innovation has risen, innovative firms become increas-ingly dependent on external sources of knowledge ratherthan in-house research. Intensified competition, shorterproduct life cycles and expanded technological opportuni-ties force them to innovate more quickly and focus theirR&D expenditures, while seeking privileged and rapidaccess to complementary new knowledge in the public andprivate sectors. The result has been the emergence of anew organisation of industrial research, less centred on theindividual firm, more based on networks and markets, andmore reliant on small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) and new technology-based firms. Financial, regula-tory and organisational changes have further boosted thistechnological outsourcing and promoted the developmentof technology markets for the exchange or sale of licencesfor patented technologies.

… and public research organisations have become more active partners of industry.

Public research organisations have become active part-ners in such arrangements. Limitations on core public financ-ing and active efforts to promote the commercialisation ofpublicly funded research results have encouraged universi-ties and other publicly funded research organisations toenter the growing market for technology (e.g. through patent-

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ing, contract research and spin-offs). While the bulk of indus-try-science relations will continue to take place throughinformal channels, the most spectacular change in industry-science relationships is the emergence of broad alliancesbetween universities and firms and the accelerating devel-opment of formal, market-based relationships, especiallythe growing commercialisation of research results throughspin-off companies and the licensing of intellectual property.

Intellectual propertyrights have become

more importantas high-technology

patentinghas expanded…

Intellectual property rights become increasinglyimportant in this context, as patents largely determine thereward to inventors and investors and the degree of diffu-sion of technology, including at the science-innovationinterface. Firm strategies tend to place greater emphasis onpatenting as a means of protecting their inventions andincreasing their leverage in negotiations over alliances.More than 850 000 patent applications were filed in the USPatent and Trademark Office, the European Patent Officeand the Japan Patent Office in 2002, against 600 000 in 1992.Most of this growth comes from new technology areas, nota-bly biotechnology and ICT, where they are at the heart ofbusiness strategy. Around one-third of all patents currentlyfiled are ICT-related, and ICT accounts for nearly half of thegrowth in patenting over the past decade. A surge in start-ups, many of them close to public research (e.g. spin-offs),has been instrumental in promoting technical change inbiotechnology and ICT and was facilitated by extensive useof patents. Many of these companies have no assets otherthan their technology on which to rely to generate revenue.It has also permitted the expansion of markets for technol-ogy, as the increase in licensing contracts shows.

… and patent rightshave broadened and

strengthened.

The strengthening and extension of patent rights overthe past two decades have facilitated the boom in patent-ing and likely contributed to firms’ willingness to channelincreasing amounts of capital to business R&D, the basis forexpanding the knowledge-based economy. Major changesexperienced by patent regimes include: i) extended cover-age of intellectual property protection to software, geneticsand business methods, with notable differences acrosscountries; ii) increasingly flexible and less costly filing pro-cedures, notably at the international level (European

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Patent Office, Patent Convention Treaty); iii) new governingbodies, usually with more power to enforce rights(e.g. World Trade Organization, World Intellectual PropertyOrganization); and iv) stronger and more frequent enforce-ment of patent holders’ rights in the courts, often as a resultof newly created specialised courts for intellectual prop-erty. In addition, governments have used patent rights as alever for adapting universities’ research agendas to theneeds of society and facilitating the implementation of theresulting discoveries. Public research organisations areincreasingly encouraged to patent and license their inven-tions in order to improve the diffusion of technology origi-nating from publicly funded research.3

Such changes have raised concerns about…

The expansion of patenting has also raised concerns,and its effects on innovation and performance are not fullyunderstood. Issues that need to be addressed relate tostrategic patenting, the quality of patents granted andresearch use of patented inventions.

... unnecessary limitations on the use and diffusion of invention,…

• Strategic patenting. While growth in patenting is driven,in part, by increased inventive activity, it is also dueto changes in business strategies. Strategic patentingcan allow firms to increase their profits fromcommercial ised inventions or unduly blockcompetitors from entering related product markets.If taken too far, it limits the role of patenting inencouraging invention and diffusion of technology.Policy makers must protect vigilantly againstdetrimental practices and attempt to craft patentreg imes that promote both innovat ion andknowledge diffusion. This requires insight intobusiness patenting and licensing strategies andpractices.

… difficulties for ensuring patent quality,…

• Ensuring patent quality. Quality is essential to limit thepotentially detrimental effects of patents oncompetition and knowledge diffusion. The growingnumber of patent applications received at patentoffices makes it increasingly difficult to manage thepatent system and ensure quality at reasonable cost.This has led to calls for greater commonality among

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patent regimes and greater co-operation amongpatent offices. For newly patentable types ofinventions such as genetic inventions, software andbusiness methods, it is feared that some patents areexcessively broad or protect inventions that are notnew and innovative. In new technology areas,particular efforts are needed to help patent officesand courts build the experience and knowledgenecessary to guarantee that patents granted are ofhigh quality.

… and restrictionson research uses of

patented inventions.

• Research exemptions. Researchers in the public sectorare concerned about an apparent narrowing of theso-called research exemption, which allows them touse others’ inventions at little or no cost in thecourse of their research. A possible erosion of thisexemption could have detrimental effects on publicsector research in particular, and thwart efforts toincrease its capacity to contribute to social andeconomic objectives. The legal status of the researchexemption is not well defined in many countries andgreater clarification is needed owing to the growth inuniversity patenting and universities’ closer linkswith business. Information is also needed todetermine how often public sector institutions orresearchers actually use or invoke the researchexemption.

While some of theseconcerns may be

addressed by morewidespread

licensingof technology,…

Expanding markets for technology offer a means of dif-fusing patented technologies among a larger number ofinnovating organisations via licensing. They may improvethe overall efficiency of business R&D by allowing firms toconcentrate their R&D resources in their areas of relativestrength and to rely on others for complementary technolo-gies. By providing a channel for firms to sell or license tech-nologies they cannot use themselves, they may alsoencourage firms to broaden their R&D portfolios and createbusiness opportunities for firms specialised in matchingtechnology supply and demand. The lack of research intothe functioning of technology markets makes it difficult tofully evaluate the effects of stronger patents on innovationand economic performance and to determine how govern-

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ments can further encourage and expand their use. Govern-ments can encourage broad l icensing of patentedinventions by issuing guidelines in areas such as biotech-nology, and they can explore ways to encourage alternativemeans of disseminating knowledge, such as encouragingthe placing of inventions in the public domain.

… policy choices will require more systematic economic analysis.

Fostering the use and enforcement of patents has beenthe objective of patent policy in OECD countries over thepast two decades, with a view to encouraging investments ininnovation and enhancing the dissemination of knowledge.However, no systematic economic evaluation has been car-ried out to better inform policy choices. As patents play anincreasingly central role in innovation processes in both theprivate and public sectors, patent policy must be subject tocloser scrutiny by science and technology policy makers.

Globalisation of scientific and innovation networks

International linkages can broaden countries’ access to science and technology,…

As the cost of innovation at the scientific frontier rises,countries need to be open to ideas from abroad. The chal-lenge is greatest for small and medium-sized countries, butis also faced by larger ones. Focusing research on particulardisciplines or problem areas in order to achieve criticalmass and excellence can introduce new risks as innovationsbecome more complex and advances in one field becomeessential to innovation in another (e.g. the symbiotic rela-tionship between microelectronics, biotechnology and nan-otechnology). More international linkages appear to be aneffective way for small and medium-sized countries toobtain economies of scale and scope in their researchenterprise.

… and regional clusters can anchor international linkages.

Innovative activity tends to cluster in particular loca-tions, often building on pre-existing infrastructure (e.g. aleading university, a key firm or an important publicresearch facility). Globalisation and regional clustering ofinnovative activities are mutually enhancing, and someinnovative clusters are major attractors of qualified labourand foreign direct investment. Harnessing national benefitsfrom globalisation requires a regional approach to industry-science partnerships, since the nature of the international

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linkages to be developed depends on the characteristics ofthe innovative cluster. This is especially true for universi-ties which, roughly speaking, can participate in three typesof industry-science relationships: those involving multina-tional enterprises and world-class universities; thosebetween universities and high-technology small firms; andregional partnerships between firms (often SMEs lookingfor shorter-term, problem-solving capabilities) and localuniversities.

The globalisationof industry has led

to new forms ofinternationalisation.

The interface between innovation and science systemswas initially structured around national research organisa-tions and domestic firms, at a time when the strategic inter-ests of the different stakeholders converged easily towardsnational goals. International linkages were mainly createdthrough the scientific community, which has a longstandingtradition of global networking. The situation evolved gradu-ally over the 1970s and 1980s as government-sponsoredinternational co-operation in technological developmentintensified, especially within Europe. The globalisation offirms’ R&D strategy and access to public research, togetherwith the increased mobility of scarce highly qualifiedlabour, now lead to much more fundamental changes.

Moreinternationalisedscience-industry

links can generatesignificant national

benefits.

In most countries the science-innovation interfaceremains the least internationalised part of the science andinnovation system. This reduces its efficiency more than ithelps ensure national benefits from globalisation. Govern-ments have tended to be cautious with regard to foreignaccess to publicly funded R&D programmes, at times forreasons of national security but also for reasons of techno-logical and economic competitiveness. Although foreignfirms increasingly participate in public/private researchpartnerships in the OECD area, they do so on a small scale.Yet in a number of countries foreign firms make more inten-sive use of public research than domestic ones, and theefficiency of national measures is enhanced when recipi-ents of government support are part of dynamic interna-t ional networks. In addit ion, international pol icycommitments and pooling of public and private resourcesare often necessary to address common or world-scaleissues, such as the environment or infectious diseases.

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Enhancing the interface between science and industry

Countries need an efficient and flexible science-innovation interface…

Many OECD countries lag behind in terms of modern-ising their science-innovation interface. Those that are forg-ing ahead to build a more efficient and flexible interfaceface new challenges for reconciling the objectives of the sci-ence and industrial communities as they interact moreclosely.

… and comprehensive reforms that strengthen industry-science links.

Enhancing the synergy between science and innova-tion systems requires policies whose rationale and instru-ments fit the changing nature of innovation processes andmeet the evolving needs of all stakeholders in publicresearch. It calls for a comprehensive approach to reformsin a number of areas, including the governance of sciencesystems, public/private partnerships in science-basedinnovation, management of IPRs and government incen-tives to business R&D. The OECD has assessed countries’experiences in mobilising science for innovation and inpromoting the quality of research results while ensuringthat scientific fields of great economic and social impor-tance receive sufficient attention. It has identified severaldomains in which many governments are reassessing policyand where emerging good practices could inspire currentreforms.

Improving the contributions of public research organisations

Changes in governance and funding structures can make public research organisations more responsive to economic and social needs…

Better governance of universities and public laborato-ries can be achieved through the use of new mechanismsfor the steering and funding of research. These includegreater use of project funding (typically contracts andgrants awarded through competition) as opposed to institu-tional block grants, selective increases of funding forresearch fields that are linked to social and economicneeds, and the creation of multidisciplinary research cen-tres or networks that serve both to concentrate expertise inparticular fields of science and technology and to fosterresearch at the nexus of several disciplines. It also oftenrequires a greater commitment to evaluating researchersand research organisations, as well as changes in the waysuch evaluations are conducted. Evaluation criteria mustrecognise that excellence in research and training of gradu-

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ates has become, at least in some disciplines, more tied toindustry applications and contributions to addressingsocial problems. They must take into account the quality ofthe research, its potential social and economic impact, andthe value of university research in educating students. Inthis area, national initiatives are increasingly comple-mented by further efforts to develop benchmarking indica-tors and methodologies at international level and to useforeign expertise in national evaluation. The OECD can playa significant role in developing frameworks to guide suchevaluations.

… withoutundermining their

commitment tofundamental

research or theirobjectivity.

The science system should not be made more respon-sive to identifiable opportunities at the expense of creativ-ity and diversity in exploring the knowledge frontiers withina long time frame. Because changes in business R&D strate-gies generally strengthen longstanding disincentives forprivate industry to invest in fundamental research, theneed for government support increases. Securing supportfor fundamental research is therefore a priority for mostgovernments, even if some have found it difficult at timesto meet this objective. It is also imperative to safeguardpublic knowledge in order to ensure the broad diffusion ofthe results of publicly funded research. Ethical guidelinesare necessary to prevent or resolve conflicts of interestamong public research institutions and researchersinvolved in collaboration with industry. Similarly, effortsmust be made to ensure that the shift to more project-ori-ented funding does not undermine funding for the researchinfrastructure. Governments need either to develop strate-gies for including some fraction of the cost of new andupdated research infrastructure in project funds or toestablish separate funding sources for infrastructure.

Exploiting multiple channels for science-innovation linkages

Better managementof IPRs is essentialto enhancing links

between publicresearch and

industry.

Better management of IPRs in public organisations isessential in order to develop fruitful relationships betweenpublic research and industrial innovation. In nearly allOECD countries there has been a trend towards transferringownership of publicly funded research results from thestate (government) to the agent (public or private) that per-

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forms the research. Countries differ in the allocation of own-ership among performing agents (research institution orindividual researcher), in licensing practices, in the alloca-tion of resulting royalties and in provisions for ensuring thatnational benefits flow from patentable results of publicresearch. A good practice seems to be to grant IPRs to theperforming research organisation while ensuring that indi-vidual researchers or research teams share in the rewards.

Barriers to researcher mobility must also be reduced.

Beyond better management of knowledge that is codi-fied in patents and publications, efforts are needed toboost exchanges of tacit knowledge between the publicand private sectors, through the movement of humanresources, for example. Low rates of researcher mobilitybetween the private and public sectors remain a major bot-tleneck to knowledge flows in many countries. There havebeen a number of initiatives in recent years to remove bar-riers and disincentives to mobility and flexibility inresearch employment with a view to stimulating flows oftacit knowledge between industry and the science system.

Stimulating demand for science in the business sector

Industry-science links depend on strong business demand for science and technology,…

Regulatory reform related to labour mobility, IPRs andlicensing are often complemented by measures that stimu-late business demand for scientific inputs and improve theability of public research organisations to transfer knowl-edge and technology to the private sector.4 Spin-offs frompublicly funded research make a significant direct contribu-tion to innovation, especially in the information technologyand, increasingly, the biotechnology/medical technologiessectors. Their indirect contribution to cultural change inpublic research organisation is even larger. Spin-off forma-tion per dollar of public R&D expenditure is about three tofour times higher in North America than in most otherOECD countries. Government’s main role is to improveinstitutional frameworks (e.g. incubators, management ofpublic research organisations) and incentive structures(e.g. regulations governing researchers’ mobility and entre-preneurship). Public seed capital to help finance early-stage investment, when uncertainty is high and the size ofprojects too small for private venture capital, has also

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proved useful, especially in countries where informal inves-tors (business angels) cannot contribute much to filling thegap. There is also a case for public support and incentivesto existing SMEs, especially in mature industries, to helpthem forge stronger links with the science sector.

… which in turndepends on a

businessenvironment that is

conducive toinnovation.

Policies to enhance science-industry relationshipsmust be part of an overall strategy addressing the businesssector’s demand for the results of public research. Publicresearch cannot be expected to compensate for problemsin other parts of the economy, and reforms to publicresearch organisations cannot, by themselves, generatemarket demand for science and technology. In many coun-tries, rigidities in the public sector are compounded by thebusiness sector’s lack of innovativeness. A business envi-ronment that is conducive to innovation depends on a widerange of policies that run the gamut of macroeconomic fun-damentals, such as stable prices, to competition policiesthat are flexible enough to allow collaboration but firmenough to prevent collusion, and to microeconomic scienceand technology (e.g. public procurement and incentives toprivate R&D) and regulatory policies (e.g. IPRs). Many gov-ernments are rethinking ways to maximise national benefitsfrom industry-science relationships involving industrial par-ticipants with a more global perspective. Building on glo-balisation to increase national benefits may require easierforeign access to national programmes and the relaxation ofeligibility criteria regarding the location of publicly fundedresearch activities. Additional efforts are needed to ensurecoherence between regional efforts to develop innovativecapacity and national and international programmes thataim to strengthen industry-science linkages.

Public/privatepartnerships canhelp strengthenindustry-science

links to benefit boththe economy and

society.

Successful experience in promoting rapid advances inthe science and technology that underlie industrial innova-tion in strategic fields suggests that relevant R&D pro-grammes need to involve industry closely in their fundingand management. Public/private partnerships for innova-tion promote co-operation between the public sector (gov-ernment agencies or laboratories, universities) and theprivate sector in undertaking joint research projects or inbuilding knowledge infrastructures. They fill gaps in the sci-

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ence and innovation systems and increase the leverage ofpublic support to business R&D through cost and risk shar-ing. Key challenges in the public sphere – delivery ofhealth care, social services for ageing populations, sustain-able transport, on-line security and privacy – offer promis-ing opportunities to harness the creative capabilities of theprivate sector via public/private partnerships to achieveproductivity gains and service improvements that can ben-efit society.

Notes

1. On average, it shortened from seven years to six in the 1990s (Mansfield, “AcademicResearch and Industrial Innovation: An Update of Empirical Findings”, Research Policy,26, 1998).

2. “Structural genomics” follows up the dramatic advances in DNA sequencing. It aims atdetermining the functions of the proteins whose composition is encoded by DNA.Doing so would lead to a quantum leap in the understanding of the integratedfunctions of organisms.

3. Turning Science into Business: Patenting and Licensing at Public Research Organisations (OECD,2003).

4. For example, the establishment of technology licensing offices, public/privatepartnerships in funding R&D, stimuli for co-operation with business and support tospin-off formation.

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31

Fostering the Development and Mobility of Human Resources in Science and Technology

Governments are increasingly aware of the need to address impending or future “shortages” of scientists and engineers.

Human resources in science and technology (HRST)are essential to advancing science and innovation andgenerating productivity growth. In several OECD countriesthere is mounting evidence of waning interest inmathematics and the natural sciences among young peopleand a drop in science and engineering (S&E) graduates.This has raised concerns of impending or future “shortages”of scientists and engineers. Meanwhile, in other OECDcountries, especially those where business investment inR&D and innovation is weak, demand for scientific talent isconstrained and this limits the ability of countries to reapthe rewards from investments in human capital and mayeven generate a “brain drain” as young researchers emigrateabroad in search of opportunities. Addressing these issuesand ensuring that the supply of people with science andengineering skills is sufficient to meet growing demandare of increasing importance to governments in OECDcountries.

Innovation drives demand for scientific and technological talent

Demand for people trained in science and technology continues to grow.

By most measures, the population of human resourcesin science and technology is small relative to the generalpopulation, but it is a highly diverse group with adisproportionate impact on society and the economy. TheOECD estimates that people educated in science andtechnology and employed in a job for which related skillsare required represent 20% to 35% of the labour force in anumber of OECD countries. In recent years, employmentfor such workers has grown more than for all other

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occupational categories in manufacturing and services.1

These people work in a broad range of occupations:researchers, teachers, engineers, technicians, doctors,computer scientists, business managers, entrepreneurs. Assuch, they not only advance scientific knowledge and itsdiffusion in society but are instrumental in turningdiscoveries into innovations that create economic wealth.

Business drivesdemand for

researchers morein the United States

and Japan than inthe European Union.

Within this population, researchers – i.e. peopleworking directly in R&D activities – are the backbone ofthe S&T workforce. The researcher workforce in OECDcountr ies continues to expand, dr iven mainly byinvestments in R&D and innovation in the business sector.Between 1991 and 2000, the number of researchers inOECD countries rose from 2.4 million to 3.4 million, anincrease o f 42%. In 2000 , about two-th i rds o f a l lresearchers in OECD countries were employed by thebusiness sector, although the share varies greatly: in theUni ted Sta tes bus iness absorbs four out o f f i veresearchers, but in the European Union only half. InAustralia, more researchers are also employed in thepublic research sector than in business.

Demand for public researchers is increasing in universities but less so in government labs

The number ofresearchers has

risen faster in thehigher education

than in thegovernment sector.

Although business is driving overall demand forresearchers, demand for researchers in the public sector,especially in universities, continued to expand in theUnited States, Finland and Ireland. In the United States,between 1991 and 2000, the number of researchers in thehigher education sector grew by 34% while the number ofgovernment researchers dropped somewhat at the end ofthe 1990s. The European Union as a whole saw the highereducation research population rise by 30% duringthe 1990s, while the government sector expanded by only8%. In Japan the number of higher education researchers isalso on the rise. While business is driving new demand forresearchers, parallel investments in higher education R&Dby governments, business and even private foundationsare stimulating demand for researchers in universities.

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The context for private and public demand for the S&T workforce is changing

Globalisation and competition are changing how research is done…

Globalisation and competition are placing greaterdemands for flexibility in product and labour markets. AsS&T personnel is a key component of R&D investment, it isnot immune to these pressures. Large R&D-performingcompanies have downsized corporate labs and increasedoutsourcing. A growing share of business R&D spendingand employment is found in small and medium-sizedcompanies as well as in high-technology start-ups and spin-offs from universities. The services sector is also increasingits demand for S&T personnel. This externalisation of thedemand for S&T personnel reflects the need by firms forflexibility in employment. It also places greater value onentrepreneurial skills among S&T workers.

… and this has implications for researcher training and jobs.

Greater co-operation in research between businessand universities is also having an impact on demand forresearchers in the public research sector. Public researchorganisations increasingly rely on mobility of staff and the

Figure 4. Researchers per thousand total employment, 2001

Source: OECD, MSTI database, May 2003.

18

16

14

12

10

8

6

2

0

4

9.7 5.5 1.2 3.8 3.1 7.7 6.4 2.9 3.1 5.7 0.7 3.8 5.1 3.7 2.9 3.0 3.8 5.6 6.8 7.6 -1.0 0.1 2.6 10.8 6.9 -1.4 7.3 7.3

Total researchers of which: Business enterprise researchers

Average annual growth of total researchers population,1991-2001 or nearest years availables

Finlan

d

Sweden

Japa

n

United

States

(199

9)

New Ze

aland

(199

9)

Belgium

(199

9)

Austra

lia (2

000)

Franc

e (20

00)

Denmark

(199

9)

German

y

OECD (2

000)

Korea

Canad

a (19

99)

EU (2

000)

United

Kingdo

m (199

8)

Netherl

ands

(200

0)

Irelan

d (20

00)

Spain

Austria

(199

8)

Slovak

Repub

lic

Norway

(199

9)

Hunga

ry

Poland

Greece

(199

9)

Portug

al

Italy

(2000

)

Turke

y (20

00)

Mexico

(199

9)

© OECD 2004

34


flexibility of temporary employment contracts to accessexpertise and respond to changing research priorities.These changes in public and private demand are puttingpressure on education and training systems to adaptand enable young graduates to seek and find work in thenew research environment.

The future supply of S&T graduates is at risk

Demand for S&Tpersonnel is

expected to continueto increase.

Demand for tert iary- level graduates and S&Tpersonnel, in particular, is expected to continue to grow inmany OECD countries.2 The ageing of teaching faculty andresearchers in universities and public research labs,notably in some European OECD countries and Japan, isexpected to further increase demand for young researchers.In the medium term, however, waning interest in scienceamong young people could hamper the abil i ty ofbusinesses and universities to meet demand. At the levelof the EU, for example, it is estimated that meeting the goalset at the Barcelona Summit to raise R&D spending as ashare of GDP to 3% by 2010 will require 700 000 newresearchers.

More young peoplethan ever have

tertiary-leveleducation in

OECD countries.

The supply of human resources in S&T dependsstrongly, but not solely, on new entrants into highereducation. Across the OECD, more people than ever areobtaining a tertiary-level education, which one-quarter ofthe populat ion of the OECD area aged 25-64 hascompleted. The share reaches over one-third in the UnitedStates, Japan, Finland, Sweden and Ireland. OECD datashow that university enrolments increased between 1995and 2000, but, with a few exceptions, the increases weregreater in countries with larger youth cohorts.

A greater share ofstudents graduate in

science andengineering in the

EU and Japanthan in the

United States…

Not all countries are making equal progress ingenerating a sufficient supply of scientific and technologicalgraduates despite the general upskilling of the population.Science and engineering graduates represent just overone-fifth of all graduates in OECD countries. In the EUin 2000, 26.4% of all university degrees were granted inscience and engineering; the figure for Japan is slightlylower. In the United States, however, only 15.8% of

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university degrees were in science and engineering.Recently, the number of graduates in science andengineering has increased in several smaller Europeancountries (notably some of the Nordic countries). Largereconomies in general have experienced slower growth or adrop in the share of science and engineering degrees inrelation to total degrees.

… and women are generally under-represented.

Women represent a potential for increasing the supplyof S&E graduates. However, while more women areuniversity graduates than men, men outnumber womenamong science and engineering graduates, especially at thePhD level.

Access to foreign students and scientists remains important for bridging gaps in supply but it is becoming more difficult to attract and retain them.

Foreign students, especially from Asia, contributesignificantly to the supply of S&E graduates in several OECDcountries: in the United States, a quarter of the stock ofindividuals holding PhDs in science and engineering areforeign-born. As a result of the economic downturn in OECDcountries and the emergence of opportunities in sendingcountries, demand for foreign skilled workers and studentshas slowed. But there is also some evidence that a growingnumber of foreign students are seeking opportunities inAustralia, Canada and the United Kingdom partly inresponse to perceptions of greater difficulty in obtainingstudent visas to the United States and as a result ofcompetition for talent among OECD countries. This wouldsuggest that the supply of foreign talent is responsive tochanges or barriers in demand as well as to incentives fromcountries competing for talent. It would also seem to suggestthat while foreign talent can bridge gaps in supply, it cannotbe a permanent replacement for national investments in theS&T workforce.

Improving labour markets for the S&T workforce

Efficient labour markets are better able to match supply and demand and avoid shortages or surpluses…

The labour market is important because it affects thebalance between the supply and demand for S&T graduates.For firms and public employers, which set the demand, awell functioning labour market is important for setting wagesand meeting staffing requirements. For individuals, labourmarket conditions influence the field and duration of

© OECD 2004


studies. For higher education institutions, changes in supplyor demand are important for signalling changes to highereducation policies, including both access and curricula.When markets do not operate efficiently, e.g. when wagescannot adjust to an increase in demand and thereforestimulate supply, shortages or mismatches may arise.

… but the labourmarket for public

sector researchers issometimes too rigid.

The labour market for public sector researchers facesparticular challenges. In many countries rigid andhierarchical employment policies in the public sector aswell as poor salaries act as a barrier to the recruitment ofyoung researchers. While tenure professorships remain animportant means of rewarding and attracting graduates intoteaching and research, there is growing recognition of theimportance of other incentives too, such as performancepay systems, royalties from academic patenting, andpossibilities for academic entrepreneurship and mobility.

Career prospectsmust be attractive

enoughto encourage young

people to pursuecareers in teaching

and public research.

Growing reliance on extramural funds and the decline ininstitutional funding are increasing the reliance of highereducation institutions on temporary appointments. In manyOECD countries there has been a decline in the share of full-time tenured faculty positions and an increase in non-facultyfull-time contract positions such as post-doctorates. Whilepost-doctoral positions are a way of gaining employment-relevant experience and establishing research networks,when they become excessively prolonged, there is a risk ofcreating an “insider-outsider” problem between establishedfaculty and younger researchers. Career prospects, includingemployment conditions and salaries, must be attractiveenough to encourage young people to pursue careers inteaching and public research.

Why mobility is important

Mobility of S&Tpersonnel helps

to diffuse knowledgethroughout the

economy.

Mobility of S&T personnel is an important channel fordiffusing knowledge throughout the economy. From alabour market perspective, mobility is also important forthe efficient allocation of labour across sectors. There isalso some evidence that greater mobility of workerscorrelates with multi-factor productivity growth.3 Lowmobility of S&T staff within and between sectors can makeit more difficult to match demand and supply. Among

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OECD countries, researcher mobility is higher in NorthAmerica than in most EU countries and Japan, although thescope for fostering mobility differs in government labs anduniversities. The scientific discipline also matters. Overallmobility of S&T personnel is generally high but mainlyflows from universities to industry and services and not inthe opposite direction. However, while mobility isimportant, excessive mobility may have longer-termrepercussions on demand for and supply of S&T personnel.High job turnover and frequent job changes involvetransaction costs for firms and individuals and could reduceincentives for enterprise training and lifelong learning.

Global competition for skills: pressures and opportunities

Foreign S&T workers contribute to research and innovation…

There is a global dimension to the demand for highlyskilled and S&T personnel (Figure 5). For one, accessto international sources of S&T workers is becoming moreimportant for meeting specific skill requirements. Second,

Figure 5. Foreign and foreign-born workers in the highly skilled workforceShare of non-nationals in highly skilled employment, European countries, 2002

Source: OECD, Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2003.

15

10

0

5

45.9 44.3 49.5 51.3 39.2 47.9 44.5 36.7

%

39.2

44.038.1

Share of non-national employees in all occupational groups

Percentage of womenin non-national HRST employment

Luxe

mbourg

(200

1)

Austria

(199

8)

Belgium

German

y (20

01)

Sweden

Netherl

ands

Franc

e

Denmark

Spain

Irelan

d

Greece

Finlan

d (20

01)

Italy

(1998

)

United

Kingdo

m (199

8)

n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

© OECD 2004

38


partly in response to demand as well as to globalisation,international mobility of students and highly skilled workershas increased over the past decade; the main flows have beenfrom Asia to OECD countries and intra-EU. Previous OECDwork has shown that foreign S&T workers make significantcontributions to research and innovation in receivingcountries. OECD countries are concerned about losing theircompetitive edge in what seems to be global competition forskills. In response, they are internationalising their highereducation and research systems and facilitating the temporaryimmigration of qualified S&T professionals as a way to adjustmore flexibly to demand shocks.

… but a goodclimate for research

and innovation iscritical.

While economic factors play a role in decisions tomigrate, factors such as strong support for research and anentrepreneurial climate of close co-operation betweenpublic research and industry are also important. Moreover,better research conditions and training and careeropportunities not only attract foreign researchers but canalso help enlarge the science base “at home” as well. OECDcountries are investing in centres of excellence as a way toattract foreign graduates and researchers. Surveys indicatethat much of the international migration of scientists andengineers is highly localised around knowledge-intensiveclusters and in specific research areas.

Countries with anenvironmentconducive to

research,entrepreneurship

and innovation arebetter placed to

access the pool offoreign talent.

While there is a risk of “brain drain” for sending countries,they can also benefit from returning emigrants who bring backnew competencies, create new business ventures and buildlinks to global research and innovation networks. Countriesranging from China and India to Ireland have shown that suchreturn flows are contingent on building up domestic S&Tcapabilities to attract expatriate workers. OECD countries withinternationalised higher education and research systems andan environment conducive to research, entrepreneurship andinnovation are better placed to access the pool of foreigntalent in science and technology. Countries would be short-sighted to rely too heavily in the longer term on importingqualified S&T personnel as demand conditions can changeand sources of supply can shift. Sending countries, especiallyin Asia, are themselves creating opportunities for educationand employment in science and technology. Related to this,

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there is some evidence that these countries are not onlyattracting expatriates but also the outsourcing of high-skilljobs (e.g. in software and information technology).

Making S&T policies more responsive to changing demand

Appropriate S&T policies and framework conditions can help meet these challenges.

Science and technology policies have a role to playin the education and training of S&T personnel anddeployment in the private and public sectors. Togetherwith broader labour market and education policies, S&Tpolicies can help address challenges such as shortages ofscience teachers or researchers and barriers to mobility.Framework conditions are also important in stimulatingbusiness investment in innovation and providingincentives for students to pursue education and careers inscience and technology.

Government, universities and business as well as scientists play a role in shaping values and perceptions of science and technology.

One of the most important challenges facing OECDcountries is the waning interest in science among youngpeople. However, no single policy measure can address theunderlying causes, which may include unattractive orpoorly adapted curricula, a lack of talented and well-trained teachers, the low status of scientists and engineersin society and social concerns about the effects of scientificand technological progress. Indeed, government,universities and business as well as individuals and societyat large must play a role in shaping values and perceptionsof science and technology. This section provides examplesof recent policy measures to make S&T policies moreresponsive to changes in demand and skill requirementsand to improve the contribution of S&T personnel toinnovation and growth.

Raising public awareness and acceptance

Governments are seeking to foster greater public debate and transparency on issues of public importance.

Many OECD countries have launched programmes andinitiatives to raise general scientific culture through scienceexhibits (e.g. science days, Web sites) or the establishmentof new science centres or the renovation of sciencemuseums (e.g. natural history museums). In addition tosuch long-term measures, governments are increasinglyengaging research institutions, firms, NGOs and scientists

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in order to respond to social concerns about the risksinherent in technological progress by fostering publicdebate on scientific issues that touch upon moral, ethical,cultural or economic sensitivities. Scientific institutions(e.g. the National Aeronautics and Space Administration[NASA] in the United States) also reach out to the publicand the media to make their missions clearer and increaseawareness of their contributions to society and theeconomy.

Enhancing the quality of scientific education

Efforts are neededto improve the

quality of teaching.

The quality of teaching in science and mathematicsplays an important role in students’ performance andhence in their further study and enjoyment of thesesubjects. There is some evidence that mathematics andscience teachers with academic degrees in these fieldsproduce students who perform better. There is alsoevidence that certified teachers outperform those that arenot. Initiatives implemented in OECD countries includeteaching certification reviews and special teachingprogrammes (e.g. IT l i teracy of teachers), often inpartnership with industry, as well as measures to recruitPhDs for secondary teaching.

Adapting higher education curricula

Updating curriculaand breaking down

disciplinary barriersis a priority,…

Many OECD countries have made efforts to renewundergraduate curricula and reform PhD training to bettersuit changing needs, e.g. by shortening programmes andresponding to growing demand for multidisciplinarity inscientific education in order to train researchers to workacross scientific fields. As part of the Bologna Process,universities in the EU are moving to harmonise degrees upto doctorate level to improve recognition of diplomas,reduce drop out rates and foster mobility within andbetween member states. Furthermore, the greater focus onthe commercialisation of research is leading to thedevelopment of joint degree programmes linking businessand science, as well as efforts to enhance entrepreneurshipand individual creativity. Breaking down traditionaldisciplinary barriers is no easy task, however, owing toinstitutional resistance and inertia. Often, higher education

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institutions must rely on raising new money, including fromindustry, to develop multidisciplinary programmes(e.g. neuroinformatics). At the same time, universities mustattempt to balance demands for multidisciplinarity with thecontinued need for specialisation.

Attracting women and under-represented minorities into science education and careers

…as is closing the gender gap in science education and employment.

OECD data show that there is still a gender gap inscientific education and that it is greater at higher degreelevels. Women are also under-represented among workingscientists and engineers. Closing this gap would helpenlarge the pool of researchers for the public S&T sectorand represents a major challenge for policy makers. SeveralOECD countries have made efforts to address this problemand to improve the representation of women andminorit ies among S&T graduates and researchers.Measures range from grants to support chairs for women atuniversities (NSERC awards in Canada) to preferentialpolicies towards equally qualified women candidates(e.g. Sweden, Finland). However, recent research suggeststhat efforts to close the gender gap in science must begin atthe earliest levels of schooling. On the employment side,equal opportunity policies, flexible working hours andparental leave are also important for encouraging women topursue research careers in both the public research andbusiness sectors.

Funding and training of new PhDs and post-doctorates

To increase the supply of S&T graduates, policies should focus on the entire supply pipeline.

To increase the number of PhDs, several OECDcountries have measures focused on improving PhDtraining by giving graduates more autonomy whileproviding more mentorship and funding. Most graduatefunding comes in the form of fellowships funded throughinstitutional (core) and agency funding or grants. Countriesare increasing the number and amount of fellowships.Universities are also partnering with industry to train PhDsand post-doctorates (e.g. in France and the UnitedKingdom) in order to improve the match betweenresearcher skills and industry demands. One of the lessonsfrom OECD countries that have succeeded in increasing the

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supply of S&T graduates is that policies should focus on theentire supply pipeline, from primary and secondaryschooling to university education and PhD training, andshould involve industry to leverage competencies andresources.

Fostering the mobility of researchers

Encouragingmobility requires

both removingregulatory barriers

and creatingincentives.

Regulations on dual employment or restrictions onparticipation in entrepreneurial activities are beingremoved in many OECD countries, thereby helping tocreate incentives to move between public research andbusiness. Reforms to encourage decentralisation andgreater autonomy for universities facilitate mobility bygiving universities greater control over the management ofhuman resources. Competition for research funds can alsoindirectly stimulate the mobility of researchers, as they willfollow allocations. Fostering mobility, however, is aquestion both of removing regulatory barriers and ofcreating incentives. Human resource management policiesin businesses and public research institutions that rewardmobility as part of career advancement are important.OECD countries have launched mobility schemes toimprove national and international flows of researchers(e.g. EU mobility schemes). To ensure that these benefitsare translated into overall labour mobility will requirecomplementary efforts to harmonise qualifications systems.While mobility schemes targeted to young researchers helpexpose them to different environments, mobility for mid-career scientists and faculty remains a greater challenge.

Stimulating public and private demand for S&T workers

Business conditionsthat facilitateinvestment in

innovation cancreate demand for

S&T personnel…

Framework conditions in the business sector play animportant role in matching supply and demand andhelping workers adapt to technology-induced changes.They also affect incentives for firms to invest in R&D andhence to recruit highly skilled personnel as well asincentives for students to pursue scientific studies. Withoutbusiness conditions that facilitate the creation of businessstart-ups, the demand for, and the contributions of, S&Tpersonnel may be limited. At a general level, theseconditions include effective venture capital markets,

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regulations that facilitate firm entry and exit, and, morebroadly, a business climate that rewards risk. At the firmlevel, they include management policies that providecompetitive salaries and opportunities for researchers topursue careers in senior management and that rewardmobility.

… and improve the governance of public research.

In the public sector, changes in the governance ofresearch systems can also strengthen the contributions ofS&T personnel. In many countries the responsibility forpublic-sector research pay scales and working conditionshas shifted from national governments (which may setframework conditions) to institutions and local socialpartners. Some countries are also experimenting withperformance-pay systems for university researchers tomake salaries of researchers more flexible.

Improving statistical information on human resources in science and technology

Better statistics are needed on human resources in S&T.

Our understanding of human resources in science andtechnology is imperfect owing to insufficient or inadequatestatistical information. Gaining a better understanding ofS&T human resource requirements is crucial for planningeducation and research training policies. Assessing whetherdeclines have resulted in shortages in the academic andR&D labour markets requires, at the very least, data on thewages as well as employment/unemployment patterns ofsuch graduates. More could be done to exploit existingdata, such as censuses, labour force surveys, populationregisters and industrial occupation data sets, as a way tomonitor trends in the demand for HRST. Extending thecoverage of R&D surveys is another way to include moredemographic information on human resources. Untilrecently, OECD data on researchers was collected on a full-time equivalent basis. This precluded a breakdown bygender, age or nationality. Better coverage of recent S&Tgraduates is needed to measure trends and inform policymaking about the career paths of graduates.

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Notes

1. See Mobilising Human Resources for Innovation (OECD, 2001).

2. The United States’ National Science Foundation estimates that between 2000 and 2010,employment in science and engineering occupations will increase three times fasterthan the rate for all occupations.

3. See Innovative People: Mobility of the Highly Skilled (OECD, 2001); The New Economy: Beyond theHype (OECD, 2002).

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Global Opportunities and Challenges

Global-scale scientific co-operation is becoming more important.

Worldwide scientific co-operation has a long and pro-ductive history. Today, a number of factors make such co-operation even more desirable. They include:

• The growing importance of understanding globalphenomena.

• The increasing dispersion of expertise, resourcesand information among OECD countries and theirconcentration within the OECD area.

• The increasing international mobility of scientistsand the greater ease, owing to ICT, with which theycan exchange information and organise transnationalresearch networks.

It can stimulate efficiency gains and building of research capacity.

Opportunities for co-operative international researchabound in all areas of social concern (e.g. health, environ-mental protection, economic development, safety and secu-rity) and across the full spectrum of scientific domains(e.g. physical sciences, life sciences, Earth sciences, socialand behavioural sciences). However, international co-operationamong OECD countries, and between them and thedeveloping world, is not an end in itself. Its advantagesinclude the stimulation and synergy that international net-working can make possible; efficiency gains through the shar-ing of financial resources, information and facilities; andcultural input at both the scientific and the personal level.Co-operation with developing countries can help buildresearch capacity by providing access to world-class trainingand knowledge and thus help to stem the “brain drain”. Onthe other hand, countries and scientists must weigh the lossof some control and “home team advantage”, added admin-istrative complexity, the need to modify or adjust nationalpriorities, funding plans and schedules, and the potential

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difficulties involved in working abroad for scientists (andtheir families). The importance of these factors varies fromproject to project and the views of practising scientists maybe different from those of their sponsoring governments.

For large-scaleinternational

projects, multilateralpolicy-level

consultations arenecessary.

In assessing the prospects for a specific new interna-tional research project, it is, of course, necessary to takeaccount of the scientific and social needs and the expectedbenefits. However, experience has shown that it is oftenimportant to address science policy issues, i.e. to optimisethe conditions under which the research is proposed,reviewed, conducted, managed and financed. This is espe-cially important when long-term, large-scale projects such asthose involving the creation of large infrastructures are con-templated. Small-scale international collaborations involvingthe exchange of one or two researchers and/or equipmentand data can often be arranged as needed by individual sci-entists or their institutions. Medium and large-scale multina-tional projects, however, must often involve officials fromfunding agencies and other governmental institutions, whomust analyse and weigh the likely benefits, costs and modal-ities of potential collaborative projects before they areundertaken. Accordingly, there is a need for venues wheremultilateral policy-level consultations can take place amongscientists and officials at the request of the potential part-ners. The OECD provides one such venue.1

Prospects for international collaboration for future accelerator-based facilities in high-energy physics

In high-energyphysics, the

resources neededwill exceed those

available at nationaland regional levels.

High-energy physics (HEP) has traditionally been char-acterised by, and benefited from, international collaboration,including international exchanges of personnel, ideas andequipment. For the most part, however, major acceleratorfacilities have been conceived, funded and built on anational basis (or, in the notable case of the EuropeanOrganisation for Nuclear Research [CERN], as a regional col-laboration). The future vitality of HEP will depend on strongnational programmes, and there will be a continuing role fornational and regional facilities. However, as regards the larg-est, most advanced accelerator-based facilities, the field isentering a new phase, where the needed financial and intel-

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lectual resources will exceed those available on a national,and even a regional, scale.

For the linear electron-positron collider project, governments will have to develop new institutional and organisational frameworks.

A case in point is the highest-priority big project identi-fied by the scientific community: a linear electron-positroncollider (LC). This is an extremely difficult and ambitiousproject, the successful exploitation of which promises todeliver major advances in exploring the realm of physicsbeyond the Standard Model of Particles and Fields. In threegeographical areas (Europe, Asia and North America), scien-tific communities have called upon their governments to hosta global-scale international collider collaboration within atimeframe that will allow for overlap with the Large HadronCollider (LHC) proton-proton collider now being constructedat CERN and due to begin operation in 2007. Although manytechnological problems associated with the LC have alreadybeen resolved, much work remains to be done before a finaldesign can be agreed upon. Some of the important challengesconfront policy makers rather than scientists or engineers. It isnot clear at this time how to reach a consensus on the site ofthe linear collider or how the financial resources can be mus-tered. World-scale collaboration will require negotiations onthe managerial, administrative and financial aspects ofthe project. Accordingly, governments will have to developnew institutional and organisational frameworks for the LC andother future global HEP collaborations. This will require theharmonisation of existing national and regional procedureswithin which big, complex and expensive projects are devel-oped and operated. The scientific and policy aspects of ensur-ing an internationally co-ordinated, productive future foraccelerator-based HEP have been examined by a group ofphysicists, laboratory administrators and funding agency offi-cials. They are presenting their findings and conclusions forconsideration by interested governments.

Fostering international co-operation in the emerging field of neuroinformatics

Advances in brain science hold enormous hopes to improve health…

Understanding the human brain is a crucial scientificchallenge for the 21st century. This intellectually fascinatingtask is made urgent by its practical applications, sinceadvances in the field will lead to breakthroughs in the pre-

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vention and cure of nervous system disorders and improve-ments in the quality of life for millions of people.

… but researchersneed to process

enormous amountsof data…

Neuroscientists, having developed elaborate meth-ods for investigating the brain in fine detail, now face thechallenge of managing the enormous amounts of raw dataand the many useful inferences drawn from them. Theamount of data is huge, given that the brain itself isresponsible for controlling all patterns of behaviour,thoughts, perceptions, memories and emotions fromwithin its 1.5-litre package of 100 billion nerve cells,3.2 million miles of nerve fibres and its million billionneural interconnections. The data are also enormouslydiverse. Their source may be chemical, biophysical, struc-tural, morphological, physiological or behavioural, witheach domain generating data with their own characteristicparameters. Data are being gathered at all levels of bio-logical organisation, from the genetic, cellular and neuralnetwork levels up to whole-brain structure and function.Brain measurements produce data on processes as dis-parate as genetic regulation, cellular development andplasticity, signalling in neural circuits and cognitive func-tions. The time scales are highly variable as well, frommicroseconds to days or even years, and they interactwith other processes and play out against the backgroundof overall nervous system development, which takes placeover an individual’s entire lifetime.

… andneuroinformatics

would benefit frominternational co-

ordination.

Like other scientific domains (e.g. genetics, astron-omy, Earth sciences), neuroscience has reached a pointwhere the data-intensive nature of the work and thecomplexity of the research subject naturally led to thecreation of a new field, neuroinformatics, which stands atthe intersection of neuroscience and information sci-ence. The principal aims of this field are: i) to optimisethe accumulation, storage and sharing of vast amounts ofprimary data and of large, structured neuroscience data-bases; ii) to develop tools for manipulating and manag-ing the data; and iii) to create computational models ofbrain structure and function that can be validated usingthe data. Naturally, the development of a new fieldrequires establishing its identity, creating an organisa-

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tional structure (especially at the international level),addressing issues of education and training, and gainingthe recognition of governments and their supportthrough funding. Working within the OECD committeestructure, an international group of neuroscientists andscience administrators has identified the benefits ofstrengthening the co-ordination of neuroinformaticsresearch on a global scale, with specific actions thatmight be undertaken by interested countries.

International access to publicly funded research data

ICT has facilitated access to and distribution of research data.

International collaboration among scientists has alwaysled to the sharing of research data, but this was traditionallyrestricted to well-connected networks of scientists, well-identified research subjects and certain scientific communi-ties. If one did not belong to such networks or communities itwas difficult to know about existing data or, if they wereknown, to access them. Modern ICTs have changed this. Digi-talisation makes it possible to collect and process moredata, make them readily accessible and distribute them viathe Internet, and put them to multiple uses by providingthem in standardised databases.

Making publicly funded research data available raises a number of issues.

Whether or not publicly funded research data shouldbe made openly available as much as possible is theobject of widespread discussion within the internationalcommunity. Many stakeholders believe that this willadvance science, enable researchers to improve the qualityof research results as well as the quality of researcher train-ing, and lead to economic and social benefits. On the otherhand, it is accepted that national legislation with regard toprivacy, trade secrets, copyright or national security oftenlimits open access to research data.

There are barriers to open access to and efficient sharing of data,…

Research data are now often shared quite extensivelywithin established networks by using both the latest tech-nology and innovative management techniques.2 However,this is not standard procedure in all fields of science. Inaddition, there are a number of important barriers to mak-ing data openly accessible and sharing them efficiently.First, in most cases, it is up to individual researchers to

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decide which data they want to disclose. Second, if data arecollected in large centralised databases, collection andprocessing are often not standardised, and use for otherthan the original purpose is difficult. Third, costs of manag-ing large data collections may also prevent them frombeing accessible to a larger public.

… and it would beuseful to establish

internationalguidelines.

Successful arrangements for data access and data shar-ing have a number of key attributes and operating princi-ples.3 They include transparency of data access and activedata dissemination, methods to assign and assume formalresponsibility for data management, methods for controllingthe quality of data, interoperability between different data-bases, rules to ensure respect for privacy, intellectual prop-erty rights and other legal or ethical matters, and provisionsfor the financing of data access and data sharing. It maytherefore be useful to establish international guidelines andprinciples for such arrangements by addressing the aboveissues. Such guidelines would have to be based on carefulstudies of the advantages and limitations of open access topublicly funded research as well as of the financial implica-tions, and should take account of the requirements of bothOECD and developing countries.

The OECD mightprovide an

appropriate forumfor discussions.

The OECD has some experience in establishing similarguidelines for other fields of digital data handling,4 andcould therefore provide an appropriate forum to examineoptions for guidelines and principles on access to digitalresearch data obtained with public funding, which could beadopted by the OECD Council as a basis for action by gov-ernments in OECD countries.

Enhancing sustainability through international S&T co-operation and bio-based technologies

Recognition thatscience and

technology shouldplay a key role in

enhancingsustainability is

growing.

Climate change, loss of biodiversity, poverty and lin-gering inequity are among the most significant challengesto achieving the goal of sustainable development of theglobal economy. Successfully meeting these challenges andensuring sustainable economic growth will require progressacross a broad range of policy areas. There is clear andgrowing recognition that science and technology can and

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should play a key role in achieving this goal. In addition tofacilitating access to and use of new technologies, researchand innovation can lead to ways to utilise resources moreefficiently to create wealth and enhance welfare.

Addressing global challenges requires international S&T co-operation, including with non-member economies,…

Global challenges require global responses. While thecapacity to create and diffuse the needed knowledge ismainly found in OECD member countries, the knowledgeand technologies arising from such research will be neededin non-member economies as well. International co-operationwill be necessary to realise science and technology’s fullpotential to enhance global sustainability.

… and strengthening collaborative networks to build capacity in non-member economies.

As expressed at the World Summit on SustainableDevelopment (WSSD) in September 2002, and morerecently at the 2003 G8 Summit meeting in Evian, sustain-able development needs to be promoted through applica-tion of science and technology by strengthening nationalinnovation policies and enhancing existing global collabo-rative networks. Co-operation should extend from govern-ments to business and civil society. International co-operation and partnership in research and knowledgetransfer will help build non-member economies’ capacity toharness science and technology as a means to achievingsustainability. The OECD can provide a forum for discussingpolicies to enhance such partnerships.

Some bio-based industrial technologies can generate considerable economic and environmental benefits…

New technologies that offer opportunities to decoupleeconomic growth from environmental degradation arebecoming available. For example, genomics and pathwayengineering are delivering new generations of enzymes andother bio-transformation technologies that open up thepotential for using renewable biomass as feed-stocks forindustrial products and processes across an increasingrange of economic sectors, both “traditional” and “novel”. Itis difficult to estimate with any accuracy the likely addedvalue realisable by widespread adoption of these indus-trial biotechnologies (or “white” biotechnology as theyhave been termed in Europe), but it could be very signifi-cant both in economic and environmental terms if uptakerates are favourable. A recent OECD report5 shows that suc-cessful applications of eco-efficient bio-transformations

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exist and are in use in a range of countries and industriestoday.

… and contribute tosustainability and

economic growth bytransforming

production in manysectors.

Such bio-based technologies can and will contribute tothe goal of sustainability. They will make it possible todevelop innovative products and services with improvedeconomic and environmental performance that draw onrenewable resources and biological processes to meet theneeds of society. They have the potential to pervade andtransform economies, affecting the health, food and agricul-ture, industrial manufacturing and energy supply sectors,and, by increasingly interacting with information technol-ogy, they can open up new areas for economic develop-ment and growth.

This will require aninternational effortto develop a clear

vision…

However, the rate of uptake of these and othertechnologies – and their subsequent impact on sustain-ability – will be affected by the choices made by govern-ments, industries and society. International efforts willbe necessary to develop a clear vision for movingtowards a bio-based economy and the sustainabilitygains it promises.

Biological resource centres

… which requiresaccess to the

“biologicalresources”…

A vision for moving towards more bio-based technolo-gies would need to address how to establish an interna-tional S&T infrastructure to facilitate access to thebiological materials (living organisms, cells and genes) andrelated information – together referred to as “biologicalresources” – that are the essential raw materials for theadvancement of research based on the life sciences.

… that constitutea critical

infrastructure forresearch.

Many biological resources are held in ex situ collections,some exclusively. Such collections are fundamental to har-nessing the world’s biodiversity and genetic heritage forthe benefit of humanity. They also form part of the criticalinfrastructure supporting biotechnology, bio-processingand the development of new approaches to diagnosis andprevention of disease. They also play a small but vital rolein ensuring the safe, regulated use of organisms that arepathogens for humans, plants or animals.

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Biological resources are in growing demand, and international co-operation is needed to support good-quality repositories…

As the complexity and diversity of life science researchescalates, there is increasing demand for rapid and reliableaccess to high-quality biological resources. Collectionsmust achieve the standards of quality and expertisedemanded by the international community. At present,however, many repositories may not meet these expecta-tions as access to biological resources is often difficult andrepositories may be duplicating the work of others, which isincreasingly expensive. Even if duplication is avoided, ade-quate funding is required in order to meet expected stan-dards and assure sustainability. Because it is difficult forany single entity to supply the full financial support neces-sary, international co-operation is needed.

… and form a high-quality global network with common standards and interoperable information systems…

OECD member countries addressed these issues in areport6 that envisaged the agreement of common stan-dards for ex situ maintenance of biological resources and forinteroperability of the information systems that supportthem. Collections that meet these standards should bebrought together in a high-quality network distributedacross the globe to allow for easy access to biologicalresources and data and help avoid the need for duplicationwithin or between countries. Such a global network wouldneed to include collections in both non-member and mem-ber countries.

… for the world’s scientific community.

If a move towards a bio-based economy is to be suc-cessful – and not only in OECD member countries – such anetwork will have to be established to ensure the world’sscientific community access to the materials and informa-tion they need.

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Notes

1. The topics presented in this section were addressed, at the request of membergovernments, by the CSTP and/or its working parties. They span a wide range ofscientific domains (from biology to fundamental physics) and subject areas (fromconcrete collaborative projects to general policy guidance). They represent only afraction, however, of the science-related issues that have been discussed at the OECDin recent years.

2. The Human Genome Project is a good example of a large research endeavour in whichan openly accessible data repository was used successfully by many differentresearchers throughout the world for different purposes at different places and times.

3. Based on case studies of the following institutions: European Organisation for NuclearResearch (CERN), European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), functional MagneticResonance Imaging Data Center (fMRIDC) and the Global Biodiversity InformationFacility (GBIF). These case studies have been published as “Promise and Practice inData Sharing” by the Netherlands Institute of Scientific Information Services and areavailable through its Web site.

4. OECD Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data (1998);OECD Guidelines for the Security of Information Systems and Networks (2002).

5. The Application of Biotechnology to Industrial Sustainability (OECD, 2001).

6. Biological Resource Centres: Underpinning the Future of Life Sciences and Biotechnology (OECD,2001).

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