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RISIS (Research Infrastructure for Science andInnovation policy Studies) is a project under Horizon2020 programme. It gathers 18 partners aiming totransform the field of STI studies into an advancedresearch community. RISIS datasets cover five critical dimensions:ERA dynamics, firm innovation dynamics, publicsector research, research careers and a repositoryon research and innovation policy evaluations. RISIS newsletter is scheduled every six month,and is an opportunity to talk about RISIS researchtopics, outputs and publications focusing on lastRISIS results, events which involved our team.
We are proud RISIS activity is growing: Have fun reading!
N E W S L E T T E R
I N T H I S I S S U E
Output and activities - 2
US VS EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES, BEHIND RANKINGS SIPER, WORLDWIDE POLICY EVALUATION DATABASE
Research Topics - 3
CWTS, CORE DATASET ON PUBLICATIONS EUPRO, A WHERE TO STUDY R&D PROJECTS Forthcoming Events - 4
RISIS WILL HAVE A PLACE IN ESOF2020
RISIS WEEK, TIME TO STUDY AND PLAN Stakeholder Engagement - 5 FAST GROWING MID-SIZED FIRMS IN EUROPE KNOWMAK, INTERFACE TO RISIS DATA RISIS training activities - 6
All of us, at least once in life, we have heard about “bestuniversities”, both in Europe, and around the world. Yet,define excellence is not a simple job. Researchers of USI(Università della Svizzera italiana) in collaborationwith University of Turin, have shown a strong relationshipbetween university revenues and their volume ofpublications and citations, sweeping away someconceptions on university rankings. The study is publishedon PlosOne. To help them in their research, therewas RISIS ETER dataset. “Though often criticized for their intrinsic limitations,rankings have been used to provide so-called ‘excellence’signals. Across countries, one model of research intensiveinstitution, inspired by the US research university, hasbecome the aspirational archetype for all universities thatare increasingly involved in the battle for international‘excellence’, with university managers keenly scrutinizingtheir position in international rankings. At the politicallevel, the observation of a ‘transatlantic gap’ in bibliometricindicators between US and Europe has led to a widedebate on whether stronger policies rewarding ‘excellence’would be needed”, said Benedetto Lepori, correspondingauthor of the paper. However, as emerge in the paper, such an approach underevaluates the heterogeneity institutional and historicaldiversity of local higher education institutions (HEIs) andgenerates self-reinforcing cumulative mechanisms wherethe rich is becoming richer. “Beyond the obviousassumption that more resources translate into more output,we know little about the relationship at the institutionallevel between the amount of available resources on the onehand and scientific output and visibility on the other hand. Results demonstrate that fighting for the top-positions ininternational rankings must be associated with theconcentration of large amounts of resources in a fewplaces. This could have relevant policy implications.Researchers suggest that, for some (large) Europeancountries currently lacking internationally ‘excellent’universities, dedicated policies should be designed thattrigger the kind of cumulative mechanisms observed in theUS, for example by attributing long-term institutionalfunding.
OUTPUT AND ACTIVITIES: US VS EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES, BEHINDRANKINGS
Stronger policies
rewarding
‘excellence’ would
be needed
Available on-line, from autumn 2019, the publicversion of SIPER (Science and Innovation PolicyEvaluation Repository), a rich and unique databaseof science and innovation policy evaluationsworldwide, and one of core dataset of RISISproject. “ The main goal of this database is to bringtogether all evaluation reports in the field ofScience and Innovation policy, in order to makethem accessible for policy-maker and analysts”,said Jakob Edler, director of Fraunhofer ISI andresponsible of SIPER database. Effects andefficiency of science, technology and innovation(STI) policies are typically assessed through aprocess of evaluation and illustrated in theevaluation reports, so the main objective of SIPER isto identify, collect and characterise evaluationreports, present them to wider stakeholders, and toconduct academic research by analysing theseevaluations. “We collect those evaluation reports,the underlying policy measure of this evaluationreports and then we characterise them following auniform template, which results in the production ofa number of variables each with one, or moreassociated values”, said Edler.
SIPER, WORLDWIDE POLICY EVALUATIONDATABASE
RESEARCH TOPICS CWTS, CORE DATASET ON PUBLICATIONS
Publications, daily bread of researchers. To study,consult, or share information, publication databasesare populated every single day. And what about RISIScore dataset on publications?“ The dataset is calledCWTS publications, and previously it was referred toas Leiden Ranking dataset. Initially it was introducedin RISIS as a dataset with key bibliometric statisticsfor the most prominent universities. Later on, this(aggregate) dataset was rather an entry to the detailedinfo at publication level, the data underlying theLeiden Ranking” said Ed Noyons, senior researcher atthe Leiden University and RISIS project leader withinCWTS. The CWTS publication database is a full copy of Webof Science (WoS) dedicated to bibliometric analyses,enriched by enhancements and improvement to theoriginal version. Main harmonized elements regardorganisation names and matching cited references tosource publications: “We are continuously working onimproving the quality dataset: cleaning the data,harmonizing affiliations of authors, etc. In parallel wecreate links between our data and the other RISISdatasets, when possible, e.g., linking authoraffiliations to partner info in EUPRO, applicants inpatents”, said Noyons. CWTS Leiden Ranking comprises researchperformance statistics on more than 900 universities.These are universities with at least 1000 publications(counted fractionally) in 2014-2017 according to datafrom WoS. The ranking data is updated every year inMay. Services currently offered by the infrastructure includea public dataset to demonstrate the potential of thedatabase, together with a complete documentation ofdata and methods used is availableat leidenranking.com, and more details studies can beexecuted on-site at CWTS using the underlyingdatabase via a research visit.
“EUPRO is the first systematic and standardized databaseto investigate project based R&D collaboration networks inEurope”, said Thomas Scherngell, senior scientist atthe AIT Center for Innovation Systems & Policy, andcoordinator of the central access manager to RISISdatasets. EUPRO, in fact, is a core RISIS dataset providingcleaned and complete information both on R&D projectsand on participants over long time periods. Data includedin EUPRO are numerous: in total, the dataset comprises96,674 projects and 526,564 participations. EUPRO data are on and from EU 28 Member States, 13Associated countries, 14 Third Countries and InternationalCooperation Partner Countries. It offers the access to highquality data on R&D projects funded by different Europeanfunders. “EUPRO has been recently used intensively as acore facility in research activities that investigatestructure, dynamics and impacts of project-based R&Dcollaboration, in particular to grasp and understand thedevelopment of the European Research Area (ERA). On theone hand, the integration of EUPRO within RISIS has beencore to increase its scientific value for cross-datasetempirical analyses, and to be able to gain from RISISdeveloped facilities, such as geo–localisation tools, for thefurther advancement of EUPRO, on the other hand”. “Over the coming two years we are implementing a newmodule of EUPRO, which is called NATPRO, facingincreasing demand not only from research but also frompolicy, to look also at the national landscape”. The modulehas raised interest by the European Commission. With thisnew module, researchers will, for instance, be able toanalyse complementarities between national andEuropean R&D funding and differing resulting networksstructures at the European vs. national level.
EUPRO, A WHERE TO STUDY R&D PROJECTS
RISIS WILL HAVE A PLACE IN ESOF2020
RISIS will take part in Euro Science Open Forum(ESOF)2020, with a 90 minutes interactive roundtable aiming to discuss recent changes inknowledge production, and how they are likely tobe empowered by using a research infrastructure. We have imagined an interactive session, to get allparticipants close to RISIS project: at this purpose,a ‘RISIS DEMO’ will be created, directly linked to aQrCode. Users will be led during the session intoRISIS data and resources, and will be introducedinto the interdisciplinary approach of RISISdatasets families, in order to develop an effectiveand continuous process of interaction betweenScience, Technology and Innovation scholars,scholars from neighbouring fields andstakeholders. The panel discussion will point out how data canbe used for addressing research questionsrelevant for policy making: Is the delineation ofnational level actors still relevant if 200multinational firms dominate the half of worldindustrial R&D? Can we consider universities assimilar when in Europe 200 of them represent 80%of European university publications? How tomonitor the progress of new sciences whenfrontier research becomes a policy priority andexceeds disciplinary borders? ESOF2020 will be held in Trieste, from 5 to 9 July2020.A relevant occasion to increase RISIS profileand to widen its community.
RISIS WEEK, TIME TO STUDY AND PLAN
The second year of RISIS is upon us. It is time for the researchers of the STI communitywho are part of it to draw conclusions, reflect on theresults achieved and plan the next actions, in terms ofresearch, strategic approach, communication,dissemination and evaluation. For a week, from 27 to 30 January 2020, ISI-Fraunhofer of Karlsruhe will host all 18 RISIS projectpartners, to discuss and study all together. 3 plenary sessions, 2 reflexive sessions, 4 parallelsessions, all RISIS datasets to focus on. In addition,space will be given to the new RISIS achievements,including the new datasets which will soon becomepart of the infrastructure.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
On 24 October 2019, the Club of associated researchorganisations (Clora) of Brussels hosted the first RISISPolicymakers’ Session. The European ResearchInfrastructure for Science, technology and Innovationpolicy Studies (RISIS) will focus on European mid-sizefirms, with a half-day presentation and discussionaround evidence from RISIS Cheetah data. Massimiliano Guerini, representative of Politecnico diMilano (Polimi) in RISIS project and Cheetah accessmanager and Roberto Camerani, Research Fellow atScience Policy Research Unit of University of Sussex,presented a category of firms that may be relevant forpolicy debate: Cheetah firms. Cheetah firms represent a critical dimension inemployment creation and an important policy focus forthe future. The event addressed this issue based onoriginal data about a large sample of fast growing mid-sized firms in Europe. Speakers first described themethodology for data collection. Then, they moved to themain findings obtained when analysing the RISISCheetah database, with a descriptive analysis on thedistribution of fast growing mid-sized firms in Europe,including a comparison with the distribution of mid-sized firms that did not experience fast growth, and ananalysis on the regional-level factors that areassociated to the emergence and agglomeration of fastgrowing mid-sized firms in European regions. In thefinal section, the audience discussed the policyimplications of the analyses.
FAST GROWING MID-SIZED FIRMS INEUROPE
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
A demonstration of KNOWMAK tool has been givenduring the session, discussing the potential of theunderlying RISIS-KNOWMAK data for variousresearch and policy questions, exemplified by thecharacterization of knowledge production in theEuropean regions. Finally, the session focused onfuture development of RISIS-KNOWMAK and opendiscussion.
Last POLICY MEETING was held onDecember 19 and
DEDICATED TO KNOWMAK
The second policymakers’ Session of RISIS projectwas opened by Adam Tyson, Head of Researchand Industrial Infrastructures at DG Research andInnovation of European Commission. During thesession, hel on CLORA (Brussels) on 19 December2019, Benedetto Lepori, from USI University andThomas Scherngell, from Austrian Institute ofTechnology, presented The RISIS-KNOWMAKtool as an interface to RISIS integrated data. KNOWMAK is an interactive tool allows for easy navigation and visualization of RISIS indicatorsacross regions, actors and topics, as well as todownload data for further analysis.
KNOWMAK, INTERFACE TO RISIS DATA
RISIS TRAINING ACTIVITIESTraining provides basic and advanced knowledge onRISIS contents and infrastructure and how to use it, andthe methodologies to effort the datasets for researchaimed to produce evidences relevant for policy making.
PAST COURSE
RISIS Methodological course Application of LatentClass Modelling to research policy and highereducation studies, organized by Università dellaSvizzera Italiana, tooked place in Lugano,Switzerland, 9-10th September 2019.
Objectives: Introduce basic concepts andrationales of Latent Class Modelling, understandapplicability of the method, specifically todatasets in research policy and higher educationstudies and to know and practice the basic stepsfor conducting analysis with statistical software. UPCOMING COURSE
The Methodological course on PANEL DATA METHODSAND APPLICATIONS, organized by Politecnico di Milano,will take place from 5th to 6th of March 2020. The course objective is to introduce the main features ofpanel data econometric models and present use casesand examples based on the VICO dataset.
No fees to be paid by EuropeanParticipants, and venue of the trainees foron sites courses will be covered in case ofresearchers, early researchers and PhDscoming from European countries.
Topics covered in the course include specification,estimation, and inference in the context of models thattake into account unobserved heterogeneity andindividual effects (e.g. fixed-effects vs. random-effectsmodels). Target audience includes PhD students, early careerresearchers, policy analysts
CALL for partecipation STILL OPEN! DEADLINE: February 15th, 2020
Training activities include the following type of course:Applied Courses on datasets, Methodological Courses andSummer Schools.
RISIS newsletter is published under the programme n° 824091
Coordinator of the project: Philippe Laredo, Université Gustave Eiffel
Editorial Secretariat: [email protected]
Responsible of RISIS Newsletter: Grazia Battiato, CNR-IRCRES | [email protected]
Newsletter Editorial Board: Emanuela Reale, CNR-IRCRES, Serena Fabrizio, CNR-IRCRES
Privacy statement: Personal data and other information entered in RISIS Newsletter will betreated according the general data protection regulation (GDPR) of 25 May2018
RISIS Newsletter is not for sale but is distributed for purposes of study and research andpublished online at : https://www.risis2.eu/newsletter/
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RISIS offers training courses aim at developing skillsin using the RISIS datasets and platforms, and we willfurther develop online tools, tutorials and courses tosupport users and stakeholders remotely.
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