Science and technology: production and development of Community statistics

The Commission presents a report on the implementation of Decision No 1608/2003/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on science and technology statistics. The report evaluates the implementation of the individual statistical actions listed in Article 2 of the Decision. These actions are aimed at establishing a statistical information system on science, technology and innovation to support and monitor EU policies. The report mainly covers developments since the previous report in 2014.

In 2012, the Commission adopted Implementing Regulation (EU) No 995/2012, which lays down the rules for the implementation of the Decision, and focuses in particular on statistics about: (i) research and development (R&D); (ii) government budget allocations for research and development (GBARD); (ii) innovation; (iv) other relevant aspects, namely human resources in science and technology; patents; high-technology industries; and knowledge-based services. The Decision and the Implementing Regulation have improved statistics on R&D and innovation, which will be very helpful in the implementation of EU actions relating to the Europe 2020 strategy, the European innovation scoreboard, and the setting of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027.

The report takes stock of the implementation of the statistical information system on science, technology and innovation (STI), and discusses the most important developments in the implementation of measures. It covers data quality, and looks at costs and statistical burden.

Most important developments since 2014

• Adaptation of the data collection on R&D to the Frascati Manual. European statistics on R&D and GBARD are consistent with the guidelines contained in the OECD’s ‘Frascati Manual ─ Guidelines for collecting and Reporting on Research and Experimental Development’, because this allows for international comparison beyond the EU. In 2015, the OECD released a new version of the Frascati Manual (FM2015). Subsequently, Eurostat, in close cooperation with the Member States, adapted its data collections on R&D and GBARD statistics in order to ensure continued alignment with the guidelines of the FM2015;
• Review of the EU’s Community Innovation Survey (CIS) and aligning the latter with the Oslo Manual: European statistics on innovation are aligned with the ‘Oslo Manual ─ Guidelines for collecting and interpreting innovation data’, a co-publication of the OECD and Eurostat. The fourth edition of the Oslo Manual (OM4) will further clarify concepts used in innovation statistics and cover new topics related to business innovation. To make the most of the new fourth edition of the Oslo Manual, Eurostat has changed the CIS extensively during the years 2016 to 2018. The CIS reports now better about innovation activities and capabilities, knowledge flows, external drivers and enablers, and innovation output. These changes will increase the quality and policy relevance of the results. In addition, Eurostat has redesigned the CIS in order to provide more information on all enterprises, i.e. on both innovative enterprises and non-innovative enterprises. This will help policy makers to better understand what distinguishes strong innovators from weak or non-innovators and design appropriate polices.

Quality of data and administrative burden: constant monitoring of compliance and quality of the R&D and CIS statistics required by EU legislation shows that the quality of the data it produces is good. However, the data that Member States send to Eurostat on a voluntary basis is not always complete. This is mainly due to resource restrictions in the Member States. Precise estimates of the cost and burden related to the production of these statistics are hard to obtain from Member States. However, Eurostat, in co-operation with the Member States, is taking several measures to increase cost efficiency and reduce the administrative burden of producing these statistics, and to increase their completeness

Future developments: a major goal for the future development of EU statistics on science and technology will be to strengthen the link between these statistics and other business statistics further. To achieve this, R&D, GBARD and innovation statistics will be included in the forthcoming new framework regulation integrating business statistics (FRIBS). This will increase the consistency and comparability of data, and help to reduce cost and burden at the same time. The Commission will also launch a series of pilot studies and feasibility studies, and aims to better measure the impact of EU policies, in particular the impact of the forthcoming framework programme for research and innovation, in order to compare the performance of projects that receive EU funding and projects that do not receive EU funding.