Draft Report of the Expert Group on International STI Cooperation to ...

The development <strong>of</strong> a strategy at EU level must be built on a sound knowledge <strong>of</strong> existing
funding patterns and policy driven initiatives, at national and EU level. This analysis is not
solely indicators based, but as for indicators, <strong>the</strong> following are suggested:
Funding (medium priority):
• Share <strong>of</strong> public R&D programme and Research Council spent on non EU partners, if
possible for fields (indicator need: a systematic overview does not yet exist)
• Funding income for firms and research organisations from non EU sources (if
possible for sectors and fields)
• Share <strong>of</strong> and opportunities in funding programmes open to non EU participation,
including all instruments set up at EU level (JPI, ERA-NET calls etc.)
A European status quo analysis <strong>of</strong> scientific and technological strengths and a European
aggregation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> data captured for <strong>the</strong> dimensions above should be enabled by <strong>the</strong>se kinds
<strong>of</strong> indicators (where data comes from national sources) (high priority)
Hot spot analysis <strong>of</strong> non EU countries (high priority): Understanding <strong>of</strong> opportunities and
threats for a European STI strategic should include a system <strong>of</strong> scientific and technological
field specific analysis <strong>of</strong> hot spots outside <strong>the</strong> EU to help to identify excellent individuals and
organisations / firms as well as a system to understand <strong>the</strong> public spending patterns for those
selected areas (in order to detect future strengths and future cooperation possibilities). This
hot spot analysis should get high priority, but, as stated above, must focus on those areas that
have been identified as priorities for international activities ra<strong>the</strong>r than start with country
priorities.
Information and data sharing
Basic principles
The sharing <strong>of</strong> information and data follows out <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> needs at EU level. Ideally, <strong>the</strong>
mechanisms developed will also help Member States in <strong>the</strong>ir internationalisation activities,
information sharing will thus be a two way street, but <strong>the</strong> focus is: how can partners share
information in a way that makes EU level policy more effective and efficient and in doing so
also supports MS activities?
Data and information can be shared that has been collected centrally or that is distributed.
The latter concerns information and data that are generated and collected in a dispersed
fashion without a central coordination, but that may, for aggregate benefits at European level,
be shared. It is obvious that <strong>the</strong>re will be much more information available on national level,
at Commission level, among R&D organisations etc, than should or could be shared among
principle policy makers at European level. Hence, a key principle for information sharing will
be that it should be purpose led.
Data ga<strong>the</strong>ring and sharing for <strong>the</strong> indicators suggested
In terms <strong>of</strong> data for <strong>the</strong> indicators <strong>the</strong> following principles are suggested:
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