Western Balkans Regional R&D Strategy for Innovation

GROWTH THROUGH RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN THE WESTERN BALKANS

— THE MOMENT FOR ACTION

Kristina Ferara Blašković, Ministry of Science, Education and Sports

Paulo Correa, World Bank

December 12, 2013.

Zagreb

7 Policy Reviews of key

institutions, policies and programs:

Country Papers

The Western Balkans R&D Strategy for Innovation Technical Assistance:

Inception Report — Regional R&D Strategy for Innovation in the Western Balkan Countries: Key Issues and Implications for Technical Assistance, World Bank (2011).

4 High Level Workshops with representatives from governments, research institutes, universities and private sector from all beneficiary entities, as well as international experts

3 Technical Studies (The State of Scientific Performance of the WBCs; Survey of the

status of research Infrastructure and technology transfer activities; and Assessment of Data

Availability on Research and Innovation) and 5 technical notes : Overview and Main Report of the Status of Research and Innovation in the Western Balkans.

Video: Research for Innovation: The moment for action

Website:http://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2013/10/24/balkans-innovation-event

An 18 Months Fact-Based Consensus Building Exercise

12 Visits to the region Outreach exercise and broader consensus building between 12/2011 and 8/2013

SUMMARY VIEW: THE STATUS OF THE RESEARCH AND INNOVATION SECTOR

What/?

The Impact of R&D and Innovation in the Western Balkans

•Innovative firms grow faster: 15 percent faster (in sales) and 8 percent faster in labor productivity than non-innovative firms.

• Firm R&D expenditures significantly contribute to performance: raises sales (by 12 percent) and labor productivity growth (by 6 percent) on average in the Western Balkans (without Croatia).

• When firm R&D, training and infrastructure services sales are compared, R&D is shown to have the highest correlation to sales growth (excluding Croatia)

Source: Seker, M. (2013) – Background paper for the technical assistance on the Western Balkans R&D for Innovation Strategy

The Western Balkans’ Investment in R&D

• Gross expenditure on R&D in the WB has declined dramatically in the past two decades.

•The region is investing approximately €495 million in the R&D per year

•The variance of R&D intensity within the region

•The regions R&D intensity – 0,33 % of GDP

•Scientific performance – substantially bellow EU average

•The average number of citation per document in the WB (0,62) in 2003-2010 was about half of the EU 27 average (1,27)

•Science- industry collaboration ranking of 144 countries, the WB’s average stands at the 88th position (EU27- 40th)

0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 40,000 45,000 50,0000.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

Albania

Argentina

Australia

Austria

Belgium

BiH

Canada

China

Croatia

Czech Rep.

Denmark

Finland

France

Germany

Hungary

Iceland

Ireland

Italy

JapanKorea

FYR, MacedoniaMexico

Montenegro

Netherlands

New ZealandNorway

Poland

Portugal

Romania

Russia

Serbia

Singapore

Slovakia

Slovenia

South Africa

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Turkey

UK

U.S.

GDP per capita, PPP $

GER

D a

s %

of G

DP

GERD (more recent data) in WBC is below what would have been expected given country’s development levels

LOW R&D INVESTMENT LEVELS

Bosnia and Herzegov-

ina

Croatia The former Yugoslav

Republic of Macedonia

Finland Germany United States of America

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

90000

100000

FYR Macedonia

One patent in Croatia requires approximately three times more R&D investments then in the US.

GERD/ Total Triadic patents

COSTLY RESULTS OF R&D INVESTMENTSU

S$ 1

,000

STRATEGIC VIEW

INVEST MORE AND BETTER IN R&D

POLICY REFORMS AND SELECTED INVESTMENTS

A “SECTOR – WIDE” APPROACH

The Vision

THE WAY FORWARD

REFORMS AND INVESTMENTS TO FOSTER EFFECTIVE RESEARCH COMMERCIALIZATION AND INDUSTRY SCIENCE

COLLABORATION

10

Intermediate Goals PROPOSED ACTIONS Measurement

Build expertise and infrastructure for Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) management

Promote higher levels of industry-science collaboration

POLICY REFORMS

Reform of IPRs legal Framework for publicly-funded research

Employment and Higher Education Lawsencourage commercialization and collaboration with industry

INVESTMENTTECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OFFICES : provide assistance in the management and commercialization of research outcomes; training and expertise development for TTOs; link with TT intermediaries.

FUNDING of Prototype Development and Proof-of-Concept; andGrants for industry-science collaboration

• Increased share of research pool coverage by TTO services

• Increased number of research results disclosed to TTOs

• Increased number of patents and other IPRs

• Increased licensing activity

• Larger number of spinoff companies

• Higher number and value of licensing agreements & spinoff companies

• Increased volume of contract research

REGIONAL PROGRAMS

1. A research excellence fund to increase international collaboration with the scientific Diaspora and expand opportunities for young researchers.

2. Regional networks of excellence in selected fields – consistent with a strategy for “smart specialization” of the region.

3. A technology transfer facility to support and provide assistance at national level

4. An early stage innovation facility to complement the support to be provided by the Western Balkan Enterprise Development and Innovation Facility (EDIF).

The Western Balkans Innovation Strategy Exercise — (WISE)

Ministerial Conference on the Western Balkans Regional R&D Strategy for Innovation, October 25, 2013 - Zagreb

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https://www.dropbox.com/s/9snv89ge9jr36kv/131018%20Research%20for%20Innovation%20FINAL.mp4

THANK YOU!