OECD Steering Group for Governance of International Co-operation on Science, Technology

and Innovation for Global Challenges STIG

Royal Society and Imperial College London, October 29 and 30 2012

Per M. Koch STIG Chair

The Policy Challenges

• Systemic failure consisting of

social, economic, cultural,

biological, technological and/or

environmental factors.

• Impact-chains between the

different global challenges

e.g. climate, energy, water, food

and health.

• May be irreversible tipping

points

• Cannot be adequately

addressed by single actors.

• All are affected

Stockphoto from Photos.com

The new global dimension adds complexity as well as new possibilities

• Until recently, global STI activities were mainly clustered

in the “triad” (North America, Europe, Japan).

• New countries are appearing on the global STI arena

– Korea as example of successful technological catch

up

– Brazil (aeronautics, biotech),

– China (solar and wind energy)

– India (ICT, wind energy)

– South Africa (coal liquefaction)

– …

The role of science and innovation

• STI play a crucial role in

– Understanding impact chains underlying global

challenges

– Understanding interaction between various factors

framing global challenges, including social and

cultural factors.

– Developing solutions

STI Challenges

• Single countries are not willing to bear costs of action

• No agreement or comprehensive mechanism for multilateral STI cooperation in place

• No consolidated knowledge regarding the strengths and weaknesses of different institutional settings

Global research and innovation governance

• There is no world government

• But in many fields of human activities, global

governance structures exist, e.g. :

– Intergovernmental agreements and related

organizations

– International networks of public, semi-

public and private institutions

– Multi-stakeholder initiatives with strong

influence of civil society

– Private governance, e.g. standards imposed

by lead firms in global value chains

– Private and civil initiatives

Policy Challenges

• Develop narratives that makes

both policy makers and the

general public understand the

seriousness of the situation

• Integrate STI in other policy

areas

• Requires a strategic

mobilization of resources that

goes far beyond traditional hands-off, bottom up, initiatives

STIG Deliveries

The analytical work is complete

• OECD-report published in June 2012

• General introduction and summary

– Case Studies

– Crosscutting chapter on governance

Five governance dimensions used in the case studies

• Priority setting

• Funding and spending arrangements

• Knowledge sharing and intellectual property

• Putting STI into practice

• Capacity building for research and innovation

Case Studies

1. CGIAR: Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research

2. Gates: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

3. GEO: Group on Earth Observations 4. IAI: Inter-American Institute for Global

Change Research 5. IAEA: The International Atomic Energy

Agency 6. IEA: The International Energy Agency

– Implementing Agreements 7. JPI: EU Joint Programming Initiatives

– Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change (FAACCE)

+ 2 mini case studies

The Oslo Workshop on International Co-operation in Science, Technology and Innovation to Address Global Challenges , May 18-20 2011

• Participants from all continents: policy makers, scientists and experts, NGOs, businesses

• Arranged by – The Norwegian Ministry of Education and

Research – The German Ministry of Education and Research – The Research Council of Norway

• Presentations and background paper found at http://www.pandia.com/stig/

Additional workshops and meetings

• Steering Group Meeting in Korea 2010

• German workshop on global challenges 2011

• South African expert workshop 2011

• Two Norwegian workshops on global challenges, energy, water and food 2011

• Royal Society and Imperial College workshops 2012

Other activities • An OECD brochure that present highlights from the

report

• A presentation of STIG at a dedicated workshop at ICSU Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development prior to RIO +20

• A thematic issue of the Journal of the Knowledge Economy covering governance in 2013

• Other workshops and meetings in member countries 2012-13

Some recommendations

Broad based approach

• Go beyond “technology fix” paradigm

• Understand the socio-cultural context

• Technologies and solutions are more likely to be adapted if the political, economical and cultural conditions are addressed

Economies of scale

• Exploit the economies of scale (specialization and complementarities) and scope (savings, cross-fertilization)

• There should be clear benefits from co-operation that exceed the benefits of acting alone

Diversity and flexibility

• Respect the diversity

• There is no universal solution to effective governance approaches for international co-operation in STI

• Allow for shifts to address arising needs

Policy lessons

• Give compelling reasons to mobilize and legitimize

• A strong mandate supports commitment and ownership

• If there is no high level political will, demand-driven approaches seem most promising

Communication

• Implement strategies and tools for communication with stakeholders and the public

Governance

• Need for high-level coordination • Link local, regional, national and

international policy levels • Link priority setting, budgetary

and implementation issues from day one

• Develop flexible, informal and responsive structural arrangements

• Ensure a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches to secure intelligent agenda- and priority-setting and avoid bias in selection process

National agendas

• Effectiveness is enhanced if aligned with national research priorities

• Some challenges run counter to national agendas

• Convince existing funders to orient calls to the goals of international institutions

Legitimize national funding

• International co-operation leads to higher citation impact and resulting visibility

• International co-operation give funding, competence-building, networks and market access in return

Funding and management

• Funding and spending mechanisms should contain contingency provisions (cp. delayed payments etc)

• Harmonize funding of special projects with core institutional funding

• Multi-annual funding is preferable. Alternatively: Create funds within agencies

Capacity Building

• Build the competences and networks needed for future endeavors

• Include capacity building in developing as well as developed countries

• Some duplication is needed to develop alternative approaches

• Foster south-south co-operation

Knowledge sharing and IPR

• No one size fits all solution • Inventors and innovators may realize

gains while still sharing results • Prioritize outreach from the research

community to stakeholders • Acknowledge the needs of the two

tribes of science and policy • Adapt knowledge sharing and IP

provisions to each phase of the collaboration life cycle

• Involve industry

More work needed

• Scarcity of conceptual and empirical research on the governance of international cooperation in STI

• Lack of indicators

• Lack of instruments to strengthen the governance framework

Thanks to: The STIG Steering Group

Robin Batterham, Klaus Matthes, Young-sik Choi of the STIG Bureau Ken Guy, Yuko Harayama, Iain Gillespie, Ester Basri, Jana Maria Mehrtens, and René Carraz of the OECD Secretariat

The STIG Expert Group led by Chief Scientist Andreas Stamm, The German Development Institute (DIE) Keith Smith, Imperial College and Laura Dawson, Royal Society

All workshop and seminar participants

Per M. Koch Innovation Norway

per.koch@innovationnorway.no