Technopolis RCN Evaluation - User Oriented R&D in the Research Council of Norway

The STEP-group has been asked by Technopolis to provide information on the User oriented involvement of the Research Council of Norway (RCN). The information is to be used by the team evaluating the Research Council of Norway on behalf of the Norwegian Ministry of Education, Research and Church Affairs. We would like to stress that STEP has been asked to provide background information for Technopolis and the evaluation panel. This report does therefore not contain an evaluation of RCN user oriented programs as such. Moreover, due to the limited resources allocated to this work, STEP has focused on providing relevant data. There has not been time to provide a thorough analysis of the information provided. According to our agreement with Technopolis, STEP has been asked to provideA) an overview of RCN’s allocation of resources for user driven research, including RCN’s industrial spending based on branch of industry, geography and company size. This survey is based on data from RCN’s Foriss and Provis databasesB) a presentation of results from surveys of RCN clients made by STEP, covering (1) contract partner companies, (2) collaborating companies and (3) research institutions. The surveys focus primarily on the impacts of policy instruments, including technology development, flows of knowledge between firms and between institutes and firms, competence absorption, product and process development, implementation and sales of new products, as well as economic and non-economic impacts on the firm. The surveys also address the question of additionality, by looking at how firms and institutes assess changes in their behaviour and outcomes. Finally, the surveys give information on how clients assess their interactions with RCN.