Development and implementation of a demand-side monitoring system : lessons from evaluations of existing demand-side policies

A wide and heterogeneous set of policies is labelled as 'demand- side innovation policy', since the definition of the concept is still controversial both in the academic literature and among practitioners. The set of possibilities ranges from regulation to various types of innovation-oriented public procurement. As a result of this heterogeneity, there have been fewer advances toward a serious empirical assessment of the impact of policies in this field than in other fields such as labour, family, education or health. One of the goals of this report is to assess existing evaluations of demand-side innovation policies to compile evidence with regard to the effectiveness of these policies and eventual best practices, with a focus on the causality of policies for the desired effects. The goal is to scan both the European Union (EU) and the most important competing economies for best and worst practices which can inform EU policy in the future, by collecting information about evaluations of existing demand-side policy measures. In the course of this exercise, based on the empirical evidence as well as current economic theory, we offer concrete suggestions on which additional demand-side policy measures may be applicable in the EU context. The primary focus of this study is complementary measures. However, we will also search for evaluations of 'conventional' demand-side measures, i.e. policies in the areas of legislation, standardisation/regulation and public procurement of innovation (including pre-commercial procurement)