Transcript Measuring Research and Experimental Development

Improving Statistical Systems:
Advice from the UIS Technical Guide
National training workshop
Amman, Jordan
18-20 October 2010
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Contents of the Technical Guide
1. Introduction
2. The nature of R&D activity in developing countries
3. R&D expenditure
4. Internal and international mobility of the R&D workforce
5. Specific fields of R&D activity
6. Foreign and internationally controlled entities
7. Strengthening R&D statistical systems
8. Thinking ahead
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Chapter 7: Strategies for setting up S&T
statistics systems in developing countries
 Institutionalizing S&T statistics
 Establishing registers
 Structural issues in the private sector and the
private not-for-profit sector
 User-producer networks
 Science & Technology Management Information
Systems and other secondary sources
 Survey procedures and estimation
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Institutionalization of S&T statistics
 Political support
 Infrastructure and sustained staff
training/capacity building
 Involvement of NSOs: “Official statistics”
status for R&D surveys.
 Adequate legal framework
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Establishing registers
 R&D in developing countries tends to be very much the
purview of public bodies
Recommendations:
 Establishing a database of public sector R&D projects
• include human and financial resources; align with national policies.
• design could reflect the R&D statistical reporting/definitions.
• source for evaluation of such projects.
 Establishing STMIS
• provide overview of research system.
• framework for establishing complete registers as sample frames
for R&D surveys.
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Establishing registers
 Other sources
• associations (trade, academic).
• learned societies.
• registers or databases of scientists and engineers.
• database of research grants.
• databases of scientific publications.
• patents and other IP documents.
• business registers.
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Structural issues in the private sector and
the PNP sector
 Publicly-owned businesses play a major role in
R&D in some developing countries
Recommendations:
• should consider issuing data for ‘publicly-owned
businesses’ separately from the ‘fully private enterprise
sector’.
• private enterprises could also be disaggregated by
ownership, in particular the various degrees of foreign
ownership.
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Structural issues in the private sector and
the PNP sector
 Business enterprise R&D is presumed to be generally weak in
developing countries when compared to industrial countries.
Recommendations:
• take into account when conducting sample surveys, perhaps by
over-sampling, especially amongst larger companies.
• big companies should not be missed out as it might imply
significant error.
• invest time in interviewing key firms to understand their R&D
function and obtain a clear picture of their activity.
 Private-non-profit sector: make a significant contribution to R&D
in developing countries, but the sector tends to be very volatile.
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User-producer networks
Recommendations:
• user-producer networks and other forms of stakeholder consultation
should be instituted.
• establishing national S&T statistics groups.
• involve multiple actors.
• coordinating/networking among institutions/databases.
• partnering with business associations.
• conducting face-to-face visits by statisticians and project leaders.
• exploit pre-existing personnel ties.
• get NSO involved; to deal with privacy of information.
• training of interviewers/primary data producers.
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Science and Technology Management
Information System and other secondary
sources
 STMIS (e.g. database of scientists, research grants, etc):
frequent source for the production of R&D statistics.
Recommendations:
• need close integration between the statistical system and the
STMIS.
• need adjustments to produce comparable statistics, taking into
account issues of definitions and coverage.
• need a balanced approach using both STMIS and surveys.
• need different approach to Private sector organizations as they are
frequently not covered by these systems.
 Combined R&D and innovation surveys
Recommendations:
• the relative rarity of occurrence of R&D in businesses needs to be
taken into account.
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Survey procedure and estimation
Recommendations:
• attention needs to be paid to questionnaire design.
• frequency of survey.
• prioritize area of work; accompanied by step-by-step approach.
• use of survey questionnaires of other countries for inspiration: need
adaptations to local situation.
• get expertise from the NSO, in conducting survey, in sampling ….
• different questionnaires might be designed for different sectors
based on stakeholder consultations. “One size does not fit all”.
• procedures need to be developed for estimating missing data.
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Thank you!
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[email protected]
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