Thammasat University students interested in innovation, political science, education, economics, science and technology, economics, development studies, sociology, and related subjects may find it useful to participate in a free 28 February Zoom webinar on How to Measure Innovation Using Different Indicators and Inform Policy.

The event, on Wednesday, 28 February 2024 at 5pm Bangkok time, is presented by the United Nations University.

The United Nations University is the academic arm of the United Nations.

Headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, with diplomatic status as a UN institution, its mission is to help resolve global issues related to human development and welfare through collaborative research and education

The TU Library collection includes several books about different aspects of measuring innovation.

Students are invited to register at this link:

https://contact.sbe.maastrichtuniversity.nl/e/65b91cd53b5d0074bd002554

The event announcement explains:

People define the concept of innovation differently — from just an idea, to something new, to a commercial success. In this lecture, the innovation concept will be defined from a statistical perspective. The lecture will explore a range of different indicators used for measuring innovation, from traditional science and technology indicators, such as patents and research and development, to indicators using firm-level survey data, to approaches using big data. The lecture will cover how to use these indicators to inform policymakers to develop the right policies to trigger firms to innovate. The lecture will also include a discussion on how to build and use innovation scoreboards and a detailed look at some of the questions used in innovation surveys.

The aim of this lecture is to familiarize the audience with the most widely used innovation indicators and to understand how they have evolved and can be (adequately) used in the policy context. 

The speaker will be Hugo Hollanders, a senior researcher at Maastricht University, School of Business and Economics, UNU-MERIT, the Netherlands.

Dr. Hollanders is an economist who studies the measurement of science, technology and innovation (STI) indicators, having worked on STI indicators for almost 25 years in projects for the European Commission, the UN, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and national governments.

His research interests include growth theory, the measurement of Science, Technology & Innovation, composite indicators, and economics of regional innovation. Current and past research focuses on innovation and S&T statistics.

He has been a member of the Netherlands Observatory of Science and Technology (NOWT), the Advisory Steering Committee for the South-African Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (CeSTII), and the Advisory Board of the Global Innovation Index. Currently he is a member of the Advisory Board of the Global Knowledge Index. He has done consultancy work mainly for the European Commission but also national governments.

Last year, Dr. Hollanders published a chapter, A critical assessment of the European Innovation Scoreboard in Handbook of Innovation Indicators and Measurement, a book which is in the TU Library collection.

Dr. Hollanders’ Introduction notes:

Most innovation scoreboards aim at measuring the performance of countries’ national systems of innovation. The national innovation system approach has been used as a tool for analysing national specificities in the innovation process and as a guide for policy. Well-known examples are the Global Innovation Index (GII) and the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS). The GII was introduced in 2007 and covers more than 130 countries using data for more than 80 variables. The GII, however, has used very few variables that directly measure business innovation. Instead, it mainly uses indirect variables measuring framework conditions, knowledge creation and economic performance. The EIS was introduced in 2001 and covers a smaller number of countries, all in Europe, using data for more than 30 variables. This approach has been extended to the regional level, with well-known examples such as the Regional Innovation Scoreboard (RIS) and the Regional Innovation Index (RII). Most of the available innovation scoreboards assume that four main actors, firms, government, academia and skilled individuals, are involved in national and regional innovation systems, in line with the quadruple innovation helix framework. Firms conduct innovation activities and interact and collaborate with academia, while the government coordinates and facilitates policy instruments to establish favourable framework conditions and the availability of skilled human resources. Innovation scoreboards also include variables that measure the results of these innovation activities on economies. Innovation scoreboards usually use many statistical variables to measure business innovation and can also summarize performance across all the variables in one or a small number of composite indexes. There are also examples of focused innovation scoreboards such as the European Public Sector Innovation Scoreboard (EPSIS) and the Eco-Innovation Scoreboard. However, most of the established and annually published scoreboards have a national or regional perspective. This chapter focuses on the EIS, its history, and the most recent 2021 revision of the conceptual framework, including a discussion of the different variables in the EIS, why they were selected, and the interpretation for policy. Examples of other innovation scoreboards are discussed in Hollanders and Janz (2013). This chapter also discusses the criticism that innovation scoreboards, and in particular the EIS, have received.

His Conclusion:

The EIS is a well-known example of many innovation scoreboards that try to measure the performance and development of national innovation systems. The history of the EIS dates back more than 20 years and over time the measurement framework has been revised several times, with the most recent revision in 2021. Each revision has benefited from increasing knowledge about the innovation process and inputs from stakeholders, both academics and policy makers. The latest 2021 edition of the EIS considers the important and increasing role of digitalization in businesses and societies at large. The EIS 2021 also pays special attention to the growing awareness of the role innovation could play in reducing environmental impacts. The aggregate and more detailed results in the EIS can be used to analyse national innovation systems and, to a lesser extent, to evaluate the impact of innovation policies. Despite the progress made since the first EIS in 2001, more and better data are needed, in particular to measure the impact of innovation on the economy and on people’s wellbeing. Further revisions of the measurement framework are needed, and more emphasis should be placed on improving the timeliness of the available data.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)