In late 2017, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research & Innovation contracted Science-Metrix and project partner PPMI for the three-year project Provision and analysis of key indicators in research and innovation. Work was completed on this major project in May 2021, with reporting published by the Commission in October 2021.

The project supported the improvement and implementation of the Commission’s research and innovation (R&I) policies by providing evidence at the country and broader EU levels. The project brief was to collect and update bibliometric, patent and other intellectual property (IP) data, as well as to develop and collect new data on business innovation based on Big data approaches. More specifically, this long-term study had the following broad objectives, implemented across six work packages:

• Developing and collecting indicators of enterprise innovation, using data mining and Big Data approaches)
• Collecting and updating new IP indicators on trademarks and designs
• Collecting and updating patent indicators, including developing tools for identifying key technology domains
• Collecting and updating bibliometric indicators on scientific publications
• Producing 10 policy briefs to formulate recommendations in support of evidence-based policymaking on key topics for the European Commission

Data were produced for well over 100 indicators, disaggregated by country, NUTS regions and leading European Research Area institutions. The data also informed the following economic analyses, which assess the global and national performance of the EU in R&I:

• The biennial Science, Research and Innovation Performance Report (2020 edition), which provides an extensive indicator-based analysis of R&I performance at national and European level, as well as progress assessments towards an innovation-based economy
• The annual European Innovation Scoreboard (2019, 2020 & 2021 editions), which gives a comparative evaluation of the innovation performance of the EU Member States, monitors innovation trends across the Member States and associated and candidate countries, and includes comparisons between the EU and 10 global competitors
• The biennial Regional Innovation Scoreboard (2019 & 2021 editions), which is an extension of the European Innovation Scoreboard and provides indicators for NUTS 2 regions of EU Member States, Switzerland, Serbia and Norway

Through the work contracted to Science-Metrix, the Commission also contributed to advancing knowledge in the field of altmetrics—in particular, regarding the impact of research on policymaking.

The Final Study Report for this project summarizes the study approach and results for five of the six work packages (Work Package 1 being administrative). It also presents the study team’s conclusions and recommendations resulting from the three-year project.

Read the Final study report covering work packages 1–6 here.

See details on policy briefs A to G here.

See details on policy briefs H, I and J, on research related to the UN SDGs, here.

Read the Final study approach report and methods here.

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