New framework to measure knowledge valorisation

The Commission published today the outcomes of an expert study providing a new framework to track how research is turned into value in Member States and associated countries of the European Research Area (ERA) . The proposed framework will help these countries to evaluate the impact of their actions, ensuring that innovation reaches society and enhances competitiveness in Europe.

The new framework captures the "multifaceted value" of valorisation activities - from commercial breakthroughs to better public policy and community engagement. With the proposed 16 indicators and 41 metrics, countries can now better measure how research and innovation investments strengthen their economy and society.

The framework looks into both immediate outputs and long-term impacts of research. It includes established and new metrics that track the commercialisation of research, such as co-patents between industry and academia, the use of intellectual property, venture capital investment in spinouts, and the number of startups led by PhD holders, among others. Furthermore, it suggests new metrics to assess the contribution of research to standardisation. Additionally, it proposes metrics to measure how research contributes to policymaking, as well as metrics to evaluate the engagement of societal actors in knowledge valorisation.

The study also identifies areas for improvements, particularly the need for:

• agreeing on definitions for key units of measurement (i.e. 'startup', 'scaleup', 'spinout', IP-based firm')
• recognising that maturity of dataset and collection practices vary

To address this, the study makes recommendations for pilot testing of the metrics, along with further refining the methodology and improving alignment of data.

Qualitative surveys or case studies could also provide interesting insights to complement the metrics.

Next steps

Selected metrics will inform the ERA monitoring mechanism and the Science, Research and Innovation Performance (SRIP) report. This study provides policymakers with a hands-on resource to track progress in knowledge valorisation and enhance the impact of European research.

Background

From an operational perspective, the framework is easily implementable using existing data. 18 metrics are already fully available from established sources, while 23 can be constructed using emerging data or new methodological processes.

Moreover, all metrics can be derived from centralised data sources at EU level. Data sources include Eurostat, OECD, patent and trademark databases, open-access repositories like OpenAIRE and Lens, and surveys such as the Community Innovation Survey.

The measurement framework is part of an action stemming from the ERA policy agenda 2025-2027.

More information

Study on metrics and indicators for knowledge valorisation

Knowledge Valorisation Platform