Industrial research and innovation monitoring system (EIRIMS)

Even if the level of research investment of top European firms is comparable to that of the US and Japan, the EU still is lagging behind its main World competitors in terms of R&D investment and innovation performance. These deficits are largely due to underinvestment by the private sector, partly as a result of a different sector mix, but also by other factors – some of them sector-specific –.

Extensive data and analysis on industrial research investment and innovation performance are available in the Member States, but data availability and comparability at company and sector level need to be improved. This will allow better understanding the factors driving investment trends, to identify upcoming challenges, and to anticipate barriers to, and opportunities for, improving research and innovation investment.

To remedy shortcomings in data availability and comparability at company and sector level, the Commission decided to establish a European Industrial Research and Innovation Monitoring System (EIRIMS) ("More Research and Innovation – Investing for Growth and Employment – a common approach", COM (2005) 488).

EIRIMS builds on a range of industrial research and innovation monitoring activities already underway or under development by initiative of DGs RTD (Research) and ENTR ( Enterprise and Industry) in cooperation with DGs JRC (Joint Research Centres) and Eurostat (Statistical Office of the European Communities). The goal of EIRIMS is to constitute an overarching mechanism for integrating the outputs of all its component activities, in order that they will be useful not only for these Commission services but also for a wide audience of stakeholders: EU institutions and services, national and regional policy makers, European industry, research community …

The pilot phase of EIRIMS implementation has been concluded in June 2007 with the submission of a report elaborated by a group of independent experts advising the Commission. The recommendations delivered by them will constitute a valuable reference for the future development and integration of EIRIMS.

his page gives an overview of the main components of EIRIMS and offers links to more detailed information.

Industrial research monitoring and analysis (IRMA)

In order to support the development of policies to promote private investment in R&D, DG RTD and the JRC's Institute of Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) have a joint project "Industrial Research Monitoring and Analysis " (IRMA). This project covers the period 2008-2011 and follows IRIM (Industrial Research Investment Monitoring), a similar project which ran from 2003-2007. It consists of regular collections of worldwide information on corporate R&D and the production of analytical reports and briefs on economic and political implications. The key components of this initiative are the following:

• EU industrial R&D investment scoreboard
  The Scoreboard collects publicly available information on the top 2000 companies (1000 companies based in the EU and 1000 based outside the EU) ranked by R&D investment. Scoreboard data is accompanied by an analytical report. It is published annually since 2004.
• EU survey on R&D investment business trends
  The Survey provides additional insights into company expectations about future R&D investments and their motivations to invest in research. The results are drawn from the responses of a selection of European companies from the Scoreboard list. It is published annually since 2005.
• A series of Working Papers on Corporate R&D and Innovation
  Working papers present the results of internal studies on specified topics in the field of Corporate R&D.
• Corporate R&D and Firm Behaviour
  This is the new activity which cross-references Scoreboard data with other sources of information such as patent applications, participation in EU Framework Programmes and industrial group composition.  
• Company interviews
  Interviews aim at deepening the understanding of trends in private R&D beyond the information covered in the questionnaire of the Survey.
• Dissemination of results
  The results of IRMA activities are made public in different ways: paper and electronic publication, on-line publication on the IRI web site (see link below) and organisation of conferences on corporate R&D (CONCORD). The first European Conference CONCORD 2007 "Knowledge for Growth: Role and Dynamics of Corporate R&D" took place in Seville (Spain) on 8-9 October 2007. The second CONCORD Conference will be held in Seville in March 2010 under the auspices of the Spanish Presidency of EU Council.

More detailed information about this activity and all the reports delivered so far may be found at http://iri.jrc.es/.

More information about the 2010 CONCORD conference can be found at http://iri.jrc.ec.europa.eu/concord-2010/

Key figures of science and technology

Key Figures of S&T is a regular report prepared by DG RTD. It brings together the most relevant statistical information and analyses on EU investment and performance in the knowledge based economy. Corporate R&D accounts for quite a significant part of the contents of this publication.

The most recent Key-figures issues can be found on: http://ec.europa.eu/invest-in-research/monitoring/statistical01_en.htm

Innovation watch

As part of the broader initiatives PROINNO Europe (innovation policy analysis, learning and development in Europe) and Europe INNOVA (innovation patterns in different industrial sectors), DG ENTR has developed some intelligence tools intended to capture and analyse the most relevant information on industrial innovation in Europe and the rest of the World. These components are:

• European innovation scoreboard (EIS) – (PROINNO Europe)
  EIS is the instrument developed, under the Lisbon Strategy, to evaluate and compare the innovation performance of the EU Member States. The EIS includes innovation indicators and trend analyses for the EU Member States, the Candidate Countries, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, the US and Japan. It is published annually since 2001.

• Sectoral innovation watch (SIW) – (Europe INNOVA)
  SIW aims to identify the sectoral innovation patterns in specific European sectors, highlighting the main policy implications and schemes that should be promoted. It will identify excellent performances at both European and international levels. SIW project goes beyond statistical analysis of cross-sector innovation performance by incorporating qualitative analyses. The results of the project provide a comprehensive set of factors that lead to success. The project is organised in multi-annual phases. The first one is near to reaching its end and the second one will start immediately afterwards in 2008.

Detailed information about these activities and the reports delivered so far may be found on: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/innovation/index_en.htm

Science, technology and innovation (STI) statistics

For almost three decades, the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat) has been compiling official statistics on STI. These data not only constitute an essential input for EIRIMS but also may be freely accessed on the Eurostat website: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/