Innovation policies in the context of North-Africa: new trends in Morroco and Tunisia

This article will revise recent developments in the innovation policies in the case of Tunisia and Morocco as derived from the ESTIME project, which, among other things, has been instrumental in collecting systematically the policies around the Mediterranean partners of the EU (Arvanitis, 2006). Other projects try to fulfil the need for information in the MENA region such as Medibitikar or the Mediterranean Innovation and research coordination Action (MIRA). MIRA is setting-up a collective network for the observation of science and technology in the MENA region and Medibtikar is setting-up a network that will collect information specifically related to innovation (see the Network for Evidence-Based Innovation Policy (NEBIP) in the MEDA countries; it was created in the framework of large EU-funded project during the second year of Medibtikar). After a view of the transformation of the research systems in MENA countries, we will examine the indicators and focus on the example of Tunisia and Morocco, since these two countries have developed a systematic policy toward research as well as innovation surveys.