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technology-innovation (STI) policies generally receivedrelatively less policy attention and resources. 494With the transition from the MDGs to SDGs, policy-relevantresearch agendas may need to broaden and shift focussomewhat.Creating ways to foster an enabling environment forscience and policy communities to exchange views and tounderstand each other’s priorities is important and councilson science and scientific advisors to governments can behelpful approaches in this regard (see Box 6-1).It has been noted that, for these three groups of countries,not only science but applied science, research anddevelopment, technology and innovation play a veryimportant role.Box 6-1. Science advice to governmentsThe emerging International Network for Science Advice to Governments was created in 2014. It operates underthe aegis of ICSU. A first conference of this network, entitled “Science advice to Governments: An emergingnetwork for leading practitioners”, was held Auckland on 28-29 August 2014.The network brings together leading practitioners of high-level science to give advice to governments. It isdedicated to an examination of the current and future state of the science for policy practice. Participantsshare the best practices in operationalising science advice, including in relation to some of the most challengingpolicy contexts such as science advice in situations of crisis.Issues highlighted are:- Complex relationship between the culture of science and the culture of policy;- Interactions between science and policy;- Different roles of science advice;- Capacity building – critical role of science advice to government;- Incorporating evidence into the science advice system.This project has already generated a lot of information and has a dedicated website:www.globalscienceadvice.org.Source: International Council for Science (ICSU)Responses to a questionnaire sent to governmentrepresentatives of countries in special situations supportthis conclusion, although with 15 responses the sample ismerely illustrative. The respondents were asked to (i)assess the extent to which national, regional andinternational assessments and other relevant outputs areused to inform policymakers; (ii) identify data gaps thatmay exist within these countries, to better understand howthey can be bridged, and; (iii) analyse how the sciencepolicyinterface can be improved at the international,regional and national levels to benefit countries in specialsituations.Responses showed consistency with the analysis ofpublications presented above. Most research andinformation exist in areas covered by the MDGs, especiallyin education, health, water and sanitation, while there islittle to no data available on inequality, which was veryrarely mentioned as an area of priority in thequestionnaire. Availability of data on trade, technology,and urbanization was also reported as low in thequestionnaire.When asked how data collection could be improved andwhat could enable a stronger SPI in general, public-privatepartnerships, financial support and technical resourceswere ranked highest among the respondents, whilenational research and development capacity and scientificand technological infrastructure were deemed mostimportant for strengthening SPI at the national level.6.1.5. Investment in research and developmentIt is also important to look at the investment in researchand development (R&D) as well as the number ofresearchers as indicators of the state of development of thescientific community in the countries in special situations.However, there are methodological issues, such as partialcoverage, no information on full-time equivalents,incomplete time series, etc. The most widely used R&Dindicator is the amount of R&D expenditure, expressed as apercentage of GDP. The global expenditure on research anddevelopment averages 1.8%, but this hides a wide variationbetween developing and developed countries. For thedeveloped countries, the average is 2.3%, while fordeveloping countries (excluding the least developedcountries – LDCs) this number drops to 1.1% and for theLDCs it stands at only 0.2%. Data points to a similarsituation for the LLDCs which average below 1 per cent andfor SIDS which, with the exception of Singapore, average0.5 per cent of GDP 495 . In the case of R&D personnel, the107