1 - 20 of 158 result(s)

The fully revamped and re-titled OECD Science, Technology and Innovation Outlook is a biennial publication that aims to inform policy makers and analysts on recent and future changes in global science, technology and innovation (STI) patterns and their potential implications on and for national and international STI policies. Based on the most recent data available, the report provides comparative analysis of new policies and instruments being used in OECD countries and a number of major emerging economies (including Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, the Russian Federation and South Africa) to boost the contribution of science and innovation to growth and to global and social challenges. In this edition, detailed country and policy profiles are available on line.

Technological change is set to have profound impacts over the next 10-15 years, widely disrupting economies and societies. As the world faces multiple challenges, including ageing, climate change, and natural resource depletion, technology will be called upon to contribute new or better solutions to emerging problems. These socio-ecological demands will shape the future dynamics of technological change, as will developments in science and technology. This chapter discusses ten key or emerging technologies that are among the most promising and potentially most disruptive and that carry significant risks. The choice of technologies is based on the findings of a few major foresight exercises carried out in recent years. The ten technologies are as follows: the Internet of Things; big data analytics; artificial intelligence; neurotechnologies; nano/microsatellites; nanomaterials; additive manufacturing; advanced energy storage technologies; synthetic biology; and blockchain. The chapter describes each technology in turn, highlighting some of its possible socioeconomic impacts and exploring related policy issues. A final section highlights some common themes across the ten technologies.

Tomorrow’s world is set to be of another kind. Powerful forces, rising from deep socio-economic, environmental, technological and political trends – so-called “megatrends” – are influencing developments in economies and societies, shaping our future, often in unexpected ways. These multidimensional, mutually reinforcing and sometimes opposing megatrends will affect the direction and pace of technological change and scientific discovery and influence future STI activities and policies.

The OECD Science, Technology and Innovation Outlook 2016 is the eleventh in a biennial series designed to review key trends in science, technology and innovation (STI) in OECD countries and a number of major non-member economies: Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Peru, the Russian Federation, South Africa and Thailand. It aims at informing policy makers, business representatives and analysts about recent and anticipated changes in the global patterns of science, technology and innovation and about the current and possible future implications for national STI policies both at global and national level.

Many governments, across the OECD and beyond, are facing unprecedented economic and societal challenges and consider science and innovation as part of the response. New data from an EC/OECD survey on science and innovation policies shows that governments have particularly focused policy attention and action in recent years on addressing more immediate economic imperatives and building more effective, impactful and responsible policies. Against a background of slow economic growth and tight budgetary conditions, many governments have shifted attention and support away from public research towards business innovation and entrepreneurship, with a view to promoting firms’ potential to drive a stronger and more sustainable recovery. Efforts have also been made to reinforce national policy evaluation capacity so as to gain efficiency and to better orient science, technology and innovation (STI) policies towards societal goals. This chapter presents recent trends in national science and innovation policies across OECD member countries and major emerging economies, including Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, the Russian Federation and South Africa. It considers the economic and financial conditions that determine innovation behaviour and that currently shape the innovation policy agenda. It presents the “hot” STI policy issues in countries as well as the most recent shifts in national policy mixes. This chapter builds on countries’ responses to the latest European Commission (EC)/OECD International Survey on Science, Technology and Innovation Policies (STIP) and recent OECD work on science and innovation policies.

This chapter focuses on public research systems and the potential shifts that they are likely to experience over the next 10-15 years. While public research systems have their own specific trend dynamics – for example, with regard to research funding, where and how research is performed and reported, and researcher career paths – they are also affected by wider changes in economies and societies. This chapter explores what these changes might mean for public sector research, raising eight main questions about its future: What resources will be dedicated to public research? Who will fund public research? What public research will be performed and for what purpose? Who will perform public research? How will public research be performed? What will public research careers look like? What outputs and impacts will be expected of public research? And what will public research policy and governance look like?

This chapter describes and analyses the main global “megatrends” that are set to have a strong impact on societies and economies, including science, technology and innovation (STI) systems, over the next 10-15 years. Megatrends are large-scale social, economic, political, environmental or technological changes that are slow to form but which, once they have taken root, exercise a profound and lasting influence on many if not most human activities, processes and perceptions. Such relative stability in the trajectory of major forces of change allows some elements of a likely medium-to-long term future to be envisioned, at least with some degree of confidence. The megatrends covered in this chapter are clustered into eight thematic areas as follows: demography; natural resources and energy; climate change and environment; globalisation; the role of government; economy, jobs and productivity; society; and health, inequality and well-being.

The effective use of a skilled workforce is necessary for a well-functioning science, technology and innovation (STI) system. The policy challenges in ensuring an adequate mix of skills for innovation are likely to vary by country. First, the range of skills for innovation ranges from S&T capabilities to skills such as management, communication and entrepreneurship. Second, the type of skills required varies widely across industries and firm size (Toner, 2009). Third, the optimal mix of skills varies over time – in many countries computerisation and globalisation have contributed to large changes in labour demand, for instance in professions that require more abstract, cognitive skills (OECD, 2010a). Lifelong learning is therefore an essential part of both reacting to and fostering innovation. While education policies mainly support the supply of skills for innovation (see the policy profile on “Strengthening education and skills for innovation”), labour market policies aim to raise the level of knowledge and skills effectively used by the labour force.

A patent is a legal title that gives the holder the right to exclude others from using a particular invention. If the invention is successful on the market, the patent holder will profit from its monopoly power. Patents therefore allow inventors to internalise the benefits they generate. Without such a mechanism, inventions could be imitated, which would reduce inventors’ return on their investment. Patents are granted in return for disclosure of the invention and therefore play a role in the diffusion of knowledge. Inventors and firms apply for patents at patent offices, which grant or reject patents for their jurisdiction, mainly the domestic market, in accordance with their legal statutes. Most patent offices are national organisations; the main exception is the European Patent Office (EPO).

The space sector is experiencing a profound transformation that is being driven by developments both inside and outside the space domain. The utilisation of space applications is growing worldwide, and satellite signals and data play an increasingly pivotal role in the efficient functioning of societies and their economic development. The efficiency and productivity gains derived are becoming more visible across very diverse sectors of the economy, although experiences in estimating impacts vary across countries.

In the aftermath of the global economic crisis, economic growth in the Netherlands began to pick up in 2014, with gross domestic product (GDP) recently exceeding its pre-crisis peak. However, as in many OECD countries, labour productivity growth has been weak since the beginning of the global crisis. Strengthening investment in knowledge and innovation is a key to future productivity growth and competitiveness and is also necessary to address social challenges. The ‘top sectors’ approach, a form of industrial policy announced in 2011 and continued to date, focuses public resources on specific sectors and seeks to foster co-ordination of activities in these areas by businesses, knowledge institutions and government.

The “policy mix” could be understood as the set of policy rationales, arrangements and instruments implemented to deliver public action in specific policy domains as well as their interactions. The “policy mix” concept refers therefore to: 1) the composition of the “policy mix”, i.e. the relative balance between its components, and 2) the interactions between its components. More specifically in the innovation policy domain, there is no clearly stated and widely acknowledged definition of the concept (Flanagan et al., 2011). And discussions around policy mix often question its normative features in terms of “coherence”, “co‑ordination”, “efficiency”, “appropriateness”, “balance”, “stability”, “predictability”, “comprehensiveness”, “legitimacy”, etc.

Internationalisation is an increasingly important dimension of higher education and public research in OECD and partner countries. In line with economic globalisation, research co-operation and academic mobility have internationalised sharply in recent decades. With new technologies, collaborators in different countries can communicate easily and cheaply, and it is easier than ever before to obtain information about research communities in other countries. Financing from abroad – through initiatives such as the EU Framework Programme – has become a more important part of the research funding of many institutions. While internationalisation has increased opportunities for co-operation, it has also increased the competitive pressures on research and higher education, as universities are now being ranked on a worldwide basis. Some rankings even focus on the level of internationalisation of universities.

National strategies for science, technology and innovation (STI) have become a major pillar of post-crisis growth strategies and serve several functions in government policy making. Country responses to the latest EC/OECD International STIP Survey point to some common features in national STI strategies and also show cross-country differences in policy goals and priorities across OECD countries and key emerging economies.

Demand-side innovation policy is often understood as a set of public measures to increase public and private demand for innovations, to improve conditions for their uptake or to improve the articulation of demand in order to spur innovation and facilitate diffusion (Edler, 2007). It usually aims at lowering barriers to the market introduction and diffusion of innovations (Uyarra, 2014).

The Argentine government recognises that innovation is a key source of growth and currently concentrates its efforts in several areas.

In the face of lagging productivity and job creation, many OECD governments are looking for new sources of growth and have recognised the importance of services in this regard. Services already account for around 70% of gross domestic product (GDP) and most employment across the OECD. Services also contribute half or more of all the value added in total exports (OECD, 2013).

Malaysia is one of the most dynamic emerging economies in Southeast Asia, with sustained rapid average growth of over 6.4% per year since 1970 but it has also been facing challenges, especially since 1990s Asian financial crisis. Malaysia has reached a gross national income of USD 22 280 per capita in 2012. In 2013, the government announced the National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (NSTIP) (2013-20), which provides strategic guidelines for STI policy and investment for Malaysia’s transition to an innovation economy by 2020. The Science for Action (S2A) for the implementation of the NSTIP is one of the key strategic thrusts of the country’s 11th Plan (2016-20).

Peru is a resource-rich Latin American country which economic growth has been driven by commodity exports, especially of agricultural products, hydrocarbon and mineral resources that make up about three-quarters of total Peru’s exports. Large multinationals have been playing a key role in national mining industry and the country’s integration into global value chains. Peru’s recent growth performance has been impressive with strong progress made in reducing poverty. Since 2000, GDP growth has averaged 5% per annum, compared to the Latin American average of 3.2% and the OECD average of 2%. Although the unemployment rate remains low, 46% of Peruvian workers are in vulnerable employment . There is also a large informal sector, at close to 70% of the total employment, which contributes to low levels of productivity. Persisting poverty pockets in rural areas coexist with the capital Lima that hosts the vast majority of the country’s high value services, manufacturing and transport and logistics. High levels of informality, low levels of skills and innovation, under-developed infrastructure and large inter-regional disparities weigh on Peru’s development perspectives. In view of falling global commodity prices, Peru is currently undergoing a transition away from a commodity-export economy towards an economy oriented towards industry and services. The National Plan for Production Diversification (PNDP) was implemented in 2014 and aims at promoting the diversification of the country’s production structure.