Patent Related Indicators for Assessing Knowledge-Generating Institutions : Towards a Contextualised Approach

The extent to which patent-related indicators are relevant for evaluating the excellence of knowledge-generating institutions is considered.Although patent counts are now used more frequently for this purpose in the United States, this approach needs alteration in order to be applied in the European research environment, given the differences between European countries and institutions. In order to contextualize the use of patent-based indicators for Europe, a number of contextual elements are considered, such as specialization, nature and characteristics of innovation systems, technology transfer arrangements at the organizational level, and regulation.Patent-based indicators can appropriately be used in the European environment as long as they are accompanied by information that allows for a contextualized interpretation. (CBS)