Title: R&I performance and policies in Europe – where are we now and how does the evidence base support better policies?
Time: 9:30 – 16:30 June 23, 2017
Venue: Room 620, School of Public Policy & Management, Tsinghua University
Speaker: Koen Jonkers
Abstract:
DG Joint Research Centre is the in house science service of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union. Its principle aim is to support EU policy making and it is one of the largest "science advice to policy bodies" in the world. It covers most field of EU policy making. In the field of R&I policy, the JRC's activity include the monitoring of national and regional R&I policy developments. This includes annual reports on research and innovation policy developments in the EU member states. On the basis of these reports and available micro-data on R&I dynamics in Europe, the JRC also conducts a number of horizontal analyses on specific R&I topics, including: how to create conducive conditions for high growth innovative enterprises?; how to increase the contribution of universities to innovation?; how to reform research funding allocation and evaluation systems to come to improvements in the impact of public science?; what is the impact of the various EU R&D funding programmes? What role of large firms play in conducting R&D? The JRC engages in macro-economic modelling of R&I both at the national level and the regional level and contributes to the development of innovation indicators, including the Commission's European Innovation Index. The JRC analytical inputs feed into the European semester exercise. The latter consists of macro-economic advice provided by the European Commission to its member states on a broad range of fields with the target of identifying and addressing macro-economic imbalances. Through this and other channels, DG JRC provides input to the Commission policy DGs in the development of EU research and innovation policy making and the provision of support to the Member States of the EU.
Dr ir Koen Jonkers holds a PhD from the European University Institute and master degrees in both engineering and the social sciences. He has made over 25 publications including in leading journals and academic publishing houses on R&I related policy issues in China, Latin America and various European countries. His main areas of specialization include science policy, mobility, collaboration, research funding and evaluation, life science research, bibliometrics, universities and university related innovation issues.
At present, he is Deputy Head of Unit of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre's Knowledge for Finance, Innovation and Growth Unit. This is the knowledge management unit for one of the Directorates of DG JRC in which the focus lies on socio-economic research. The unit is responsible for the Research and Innovation Observatory which is hosted on a joint website https://rio.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ with the H2020 Policy Support Facility.
