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

Information sharing to support <strong>the</strong> “policy cycle” in STI collaboration
Principles
Next to <strong>the</strong> indicators discussed above, <strong>the</strong>re is a need for sharing more qualitative, policy
related information to support <strong>the</strong> “policy-cycle” <strong>of</strong> specific STI collaborations. Of course,
while <strong>the</strong> indicators captured above will support this cycle model, we focus on contextualised
and policy related information here to illustrate <strong>the</strong> need for additional information and
principles for information sharing along a simplified cycle model, in this context seen as: 30
• Agenda and priority setting
• Partnering
• Implementation
• Evaluation and monitoring
Sharing distributed information among European partners will support partnerships and
priority setting, as well as activities that are launched by partners in each case. Such
information is widespread among partners, and it should be based on <strong>the</strong> need to contain
transaction costs for those involved and avoid costs related to generic, non-purpose
information sharing. As with indicators, information sharing needs to be lean and built on a
need to know basis to avoid information overload and overloading partners to a degree that
undermines <strong>the</strong> key motivations for information sharing in <strong>the</strong> first place, priority setting and
partnering.
Agenda and priority setting
This concerns <strong>the</strong> early stage <strong>of</strong> a given activity where <strong>the</strong> “net” needs to be cast more
broadly. Information that have a bearing on setting strategic agendas and <strong>the</strong>nce priorities
should contain <strong>the</strong> quality <strong>of</strong> being able to help discriminate between strategic options and
differentiate between scenarios <strong>of</strong> costs and benefits <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se options. Information sharing in
this context will include:
• Information related to global challenges, e.g. climate change, energy balances and
consumption, food security and health issues. The information should contain STIrelated
items to ensure that it is international cooperation in STI to help meet <strong>the</strong>se
challenges that are generated and shared. Partners in EU-level STI cooperation should
make relevant national or o<strong>the</strong>rwise distributed information available on <strong>the</strong>ir
respective web-sites.
• Science Counsellors (or equivalent) in priority countries should share <strong>the</strong>ir respective
information on strategic issues, perceptions and analysis <strong>of</strong> a given country’s STI
agenda, key challenges that warrant STI policies and strategies. Science Counsellors
should also engage in cooperation to achieve concerted reporting to <strong>the</strong>ir principles,
including <strong>the</strong> Commission.
30 See e.g. «Innovation Governance», OECD 2005, Paris.
62