Science and technology: production and development of Community statistics

PURPOSE : to establish a Community statistical information system on science, technology and innovation to support and monitor Community policies. LEGISLATIVE ACT : Decision No 1608/2003/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the production and development of Community statistics on science and technology. CONTENT : the objective of this Decision which is to establish a Community statistical information system on science, technology and innovation to support and monitor Community policies shall be implemented by individual statistical actions as follows: - delivery of statistics by the Member States on a regular basis and within specified deadlines, in particular statistics on R& D activity in all sectors of performance and on the funding of R& D activity, including government budget appropriations for R& D, taking into account the regional dimension by producing whenever possible science and technology statistics based on NUTS classification; - development of new statistical variables to be produced on a permanent basis that can provide more comprehensive information about science and technology, in particular for the measurement of the output of science and technology activities, the dissemination of knowledge and more generally the performance of innovation. This information is needed for the formulation and assessment of science and technology policies in the increasingly knowledge-based economies. The Community shall give priority, in particular, to the following domains: innovation (technological and non-technological); human resources devoted to science and technology; patents (patents statistics to be derived from the databases of the national and European patent offices); high-technology statistics (identification and classification of products and services; measurement of economic performance and contribution to economic growth) and gender-disaggregated statistics on science and technology; - improvement and updating of existing standards and manuals on concepts and methods, with particular regard to concepts in the service sector and coordinated methods for measurement of R& D activity. In addition, the Community will intensify cooperation with the OECD and other international organisations with a view to ensuring comparability of data and avoiding duplication of efforts; - improvement of data quality, specifically comparability, accuracy and timeliness; - improvement of the dissemination, accessibility and documentation of statistical information. Available capacities within the Member States for data collection and processing and development of methods and variables will be taken into account. ENTRY INTO FORCE : 06/10/2003.�