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Measuring R&D in developing countries: Annex to Frascati Manual
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON NEW INDICATORS OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION Mexico City, Mexico
5-7 Nov 2008
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Outline
• The UIS approach
• Status and the context of R&D statistics in developing countries
• Characteristics of R&D practices in developing countries
• Measurement issues
• Present status and way forward
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The UIS approach
• Experience acquired through the UIS work, in particular through direct contact with S&T statisticians in numerous workshops and other meetings around the developing world.
• Advisory Meeting to the UIS S&T Statistics Programme held in Montreal, Canada, December 2007.
• Papers commissioned by UIS to Jacques Gaillard (IRD, Paris), Michael Kahn et. al.(HSRC, South Africa), and Gustavo Arber et. al. (RICYT, Argentina).
• Proposal for an annex to the Frascati Manual on measuring R&D in developing countries was presented at the OECD 2008 NESTI meeting.
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R&D statistics in developing countries are still rare in some countries/regions
Regions Countries and
Territories includedData published by
UISCoverage
Total 215 129 60%Developed countries 59 50 85%
Triad (OECD + EU) 43 43 100% Others in Europe 16 7 44%Developing world 156 79 51%
in Africa 54 28 52% Sub-Saharan Africa 46 23 50% Arab States in Africa 8 5 63% in Asia 43 26 60% excl. Arab States 31 23 74% Arab States in Asia 12 3 25% in the Americas 42 23 55% Latin America (RICYT) 23 19 83% Caribbean & territories 19 4 21% in Oceania 17 2 12%
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2008
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R&D statistics in developing countries
• Recognition, meeting targets, evidence-based S&T policy, but;
• lack of interest at the level of policy makers (low policy-relevance?),
• lack of resources devoted to statistics in S&T,
• lack of technical knowledge for the production of cross-nationally comparable R&D statistics,
• difficulties in applying FM concepts and methods.
• weak statistical institutions
• S&T indicators need to be adapted to particular policy needs, and need to provide answers to actual policy questions.
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Characteristics of R&D in developing countries
• Particular characteristics of R&D activities to be taken into account;
- different structures in terms of Government, innovation system, higher education system, statistical system.
- particular ‘culture of information’
- Users of R&D stat: Gov, analysts. + international donor agencies.
Besides these, international comparability is foremost.
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Selected characteristics of R&D in developing countries
• Nature of R&D activities
• Patterns in research funding and budgeting
• Professional Crisis
• Concentration
• Heterogeneity
• Brain mobility and internationalization
• More than R&D indicators needed
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Selected characteristics of R&D in developing countries
• Nature of R&D activities- More ‘R’ than ‘D’
- Traditionally dominated by government and higher education
- Degree of informality: Informal economy may play a large part in R&D activities, but is usually hidden from measurement
- Special type of R&D (Traditional knowledge, Clinical trials, Reverse engineering, Community development, Religious research, etc)
Patterns in research funding and budgeting- GERD based on national budget
- NGOs funding, foreign investment much larger % of R&D funding
- Funding may pass direct to individuals rather than institutions; bypassing traditional data collection
- Lacks separate research budget: difficulties in identifying R&D components
- Discrepancies between voted and allocated budget
- Confusion between S&T and R&D budget: over/under estimating
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Characteristics of R&D in developing countries – special types of R&D
• Traditional knowledge• traditional knowledge as an object of scientific study ie. ethno-science,
anthropology
• applying scientific methods within areas of traditional knowledge ie. biodiversity
• using science to develop the products of traditional knowledge ie. research on traditional medicinal practices; traditional pharmacopoeia…
• Clinical trials• Of growing importance in R&D
• Led by foreign institutions
• Reverse engineering• Deriving principles from an existing product in the context of an R&D
project
• Community development• If projects are concerned with development and testing
• Religious research
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Selected characteristics of R&D in developing countries (counti…)
• Professional Crisis• Researchers with research but no funding
• Researchers with funding but no research
• Much less common than lack of funding (?), but includes other barriers to research; availability of ‘tools’, problems of ‘access’, conflict situations etc.
• ‘taxi professors’
• Two (or more) jobs resulting in less than expected, or very variable, time spent on research
• ‘enseignant-chercheur’ (teacher-researcher)
• A contract giving a certain employment status but not necessarily linked to a certain level of active research
• visiting researchers from abroad
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Selected characteristics of R&D in developing countries (counti…)
• Concentration- some Regions (triad) some countries few sectors few institutions
• Heterogeneity- Eg. countries with consolidated R&D system and developed S&T statistics systems, countries with consolidated R&D system and less developed S&T statistics systems, countries with less consolidated R&D systems (Arber et al 2008).
• Mobility- Brain drain, brain circulation
- knowledge flows, impact on S&T Diaspora
• Internationalization- foreign institutions, ‘foreign antennas’, international organizations, multinational/foreign laboratories, foreign universities achieving the targets??
• More than R&D indicators needed- Dynamics of R&D systems, R&D practices
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Measurement issues
• FM issues affecting developing countries
• Developing countries issues affecting FM
• Developing country issues beyond FM scope
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Measurement issues
• FM issues affecting developing countries• applicability of concepts and definitions: (R&D, FTE, Informal
researchers)
• structure of R&D systems: (foreign institutions, Public/Private enterprises, Public/Private/Foreign HE, incompatible sources of funds)
• Sectorial issues • Business enterprise sector: (smaller % of R&D, Foreign multinationals, large
companies)
• Higher Education sector: (Budgetary issues, difficulties in accessing info, FTE calculations, PhD/Master students).
• Private-non-profit sector: (volatility)
• Abroad and international sector: (Foreign funds, Foreign research institutes,
visiting researchers from aboard, clinical trials, etc).
• use of secondary sources (beyond surveys): (National budgets, S&TMIS, databases).
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Measurement issues
• Developing country issues beyond FM scope
• Difficulties in establishing surveys; registers, questionnaire design, Institutionalization of S&T stats, Interaction with stakeholders - users and producers - ownership, involvement of NSO
• Data sources: Need to establish proper registers and directories to provide an overview of the system and an initial framework for R&D surveys
• Develop new internationalization indicators
• Develop STA indicators
• Need for studies to complement, interpret and use indicators
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Present status and way forward
• "Annex to the FM on measuring R&D in developing countries". To provide guidance and clarifications to help developing countries to implement R&D surveys and FM concepts. A task force (lead by UIS) was established by the NESTI to proceed with this.
• UIS is in the process of preparing the 1st draft of the Annex. More inputs needed…
• "UIS guide to S&T statistics". UIS to develop new concepts and guidelines to address challenges specific to developing countries, exceeding the scope of FM: S&T statistics beyond R&D.
• Some of the issues might also present measurement challenges for a future revision of the Frascati Manual.
• UIS to further consult Member States to expand and refine the issues.
• Statistical capacity building to help countries with; Co-ordination, Technical skills, Advocacy
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Thank you!
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Rohan Pathirage, Asst. Programme Specialist, UNESCO Institute for Statistics C.P. 6128 Succursale Centre-ville,
Montreal, Quebec, H3C 3J7,Canada.
Email: [email protected] TP: (1 514) 343-6880 Fax: (1 514) 343-6872
