Project: On the meaning of innovation performance: is the synthetic indicator of the European Innovation Scoreboard flawed?
Principal Investigator: Jon Mikel Zabala Iturriagagoitia
Collaborating Institution: COTEC Foundation for Innovation
Start date: 01/01/2015
Finish date: 31/07/2018
Platform/ Interdisciplinary Area: B-Creative
The EIS project aims to improve the accuracy, robustness and reliability of the European initiative European Innovation Scoreboard and make it useful for the policy-makers responsible for determining science, technology and innovation policies. Published annually since 2001, the European Innovation Scoreboard is the main instrument used by the European Commission to monitor the results of the "Innovation Union", which is one of the initiatives underpinning the Europe 2020 Strategy to create an innovation-friendly environment. Therefore, the project has social impact in relation to public policies for development and well-being.
The project has allowed:
- at the scientific level: to show that the scale of an innovation system (how much) is not a determining factor when obtaining results, but rather that the main determining factor of an innovation system's performance lies in the use that is made (how) of the available resources.
- to have had a major impact on the European and national political arena
- at the European level: the principal investigator was invited by the European Commission (Directorate General Research and Technological Development (RTD) and Directorate General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (GROW)) to take part as an expert at the meeting: “Rethinking the European Innovation Scoreboard: perspectives for 2020 and beyond” (Brussels, 15 November 2018)
- at the national level: an article was written for the Spanish Government via an invitation received from the COTEC Foundation for Innovation. Collaboration with the COTEC Foundation has been maintained over time, with the principal investigator being appointed as one of the experts in the “COTEC 100” network
- enabled the dissemination of results in the European press specialising in research and innovation issues, national (Diario Innovación) and regional media (Noticias de Gipuzkoa and the EITB television programme Ahoz Aho) and at the event ‘Breakfasts with innovators’ organised by Red.es