Research and Development Data Needs: Proceedings of a Workshop (2005)

Introduction: Bronwyn Hall, University of California, Berkeley

Users and Uses

There are many indications that research, development and innovation have become more critical to economic growth, corporate performance and management, and national government missions and have changed in composition, orientation, organization, location, etc.; but public data are collected in essentially the same ways and in some cases not at all. What new, prospective, or higher priority uses (e.g. national economic accounting, international comparisons, government or corporate management) will influence the demand for national R&D data and perhaps require changes in what is collected and how?

Chair: Lawrence Brown, Wharton School of Business

Speakers:

Recent Developments in NSF's R&D Data Portfolio

John Jankowksi, Science Resources Statistics Division, NSF

Composition of R&D

We need information on the composition of R&D linked to R&D outputs (on the private side, innovation and productivity; on the public side, publications and human resources). But it is not clear that current categories (either basic/applied/development or the research field taxonomies) are useful, up-to-date, and meaningful to respondents. How can this situation be improved? Do we need better information on cross-disciplinary research?

Industry data are collected at the corporate level, obscuring the heterogeneity of activity in large, diversified companies that account for the majority of R&D and distorting the allocation across sectors. Moreover, there are many uncertainties about technical activity in the service sector. What level of detail on activities in diversified companies is it feasible to collect? Does corporate “management by the numbers”] make it easier? How can we illuminate technical activity in service companies?

Chair: William Barron, Princeton University

A. Field of public sector (federal and university) research

B. Area of business R&D activity

Lunch

R&D Collaborations

Corporations are outsourcing more R&D and collaborating with rivals, customers, suppliers, and university scientists; but the data capture only a narrow slice of these relationships and reveal little about the magnitude of the investments, technical foci, or duration. Are private data sources adequate over the long term? What do firms trade? What relationships do we want to capture on an ongoing basis and how should we do that?

Chair: Don Siegel, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Speakers:

Nick Vonortas, George Washington University

Josh Lerner, Harvard Business School

Break

Location of R&D Activity

Where R&D is performed is important to public officials at all levels. Domestically, the clustering of technology-based industry and associated infrastructure (including research universities) is viewed as critical to growth, and the focus of public economic development support is frequently regional or local; but data are only national, state, and institutional. If finer-grained industrial data were collected, would it be possible to protect the confidentiality of respondents? Cross-national investment is increasing rapidly, and the current survey collects some data, but there are gaps. How can they be overcome?

Chair: Patrick Windham, Windham Consulting

A. Local

B. International

Concluding Observations

Al Johnson, Corning and the Industrial Research Institute

Bronwyn Hall, University of California, Berkeley

Fred Gault, Statistics Canada

Adjourn