1. ERAC Peer Review of Spanish Research and Innovation System Claire Nauwelaers Rapporteur ERAC Peer Review

2.  Four independent experts:  Luke Georghiou, Chair (United Kingdom)  Claire Nauwelaers, Rapporteur (Belgium)  Åsa Lindholm Dahlstrand (Sweden)  Arie Rip (The Netherlands)  Nine governmental peers from five countries:  Ward Ziarko and Peter Spyns (Belgium)  Ain Heinaru (Estonia)  Mark Asch and Philippe Freyssinet (France)  Andre Schlochtermeier and Wilfried Kraus (Germany)  Katarina Bjelke and Michael Jacob (Sweden ) The Peer Panel

3.  Timing: first semester 2014  Sources:  Documentary analysis on Spanish R&I system  Hearings: over 100 Spanish stakeholders-April and June 2014  Peers’ intimate knowledge and experts analyses of R&I systems  Focus: policy recommendations, not a new system analysis 1. Improving effectiveness of public R&I system 2. Boosting R&I in private sector 3. Improving national-regional synergies in R&I 4. Generation of critical masses of actors around strategic innovation agendas 5. Reinforcing policy intelligence for more effective policies Method adopted by Peer Panel

4.  Economic and R&I system context  Boosting R&I system: a core response to sluggish growth and unemployment crisis  Spain is « moderate innovator », especially from business side  Urgent need for structural transformation towards more knowledge-intensive activities in economy  Public research with uneven performance  Importance of regional dimension – diversity and fragmentation  R&I Policy context  Structural Reforms programme  New STI Law, STI Strategy and Plan, New Entrepreneurship Strategy : set out directions but need for effective policies  Smart Specialisation Strategies in all Spanish regions  Drop in national public funding for R&D Diagnosis: key starting points

5. 1. Increased resources linked to structural reform  Increased resources in the context of a 10-year strategic framework to provide stability of finance  Raise public share of GERD to peak at 0.7% of GDP in 3-years as deliberate counter-cyclical measure to initiate growth in business R&D  Sustainable Growth Package linking funding to roadmap for structural reform

6. 2. Reform research careers  Address unfavourable demography of research system by opening recruitment for early career researchers  Move career path away from standard civil service model including use of Access Contract as basis for tenure track  Radical change in management of research careers to reward talent and stimulate mobility

7. 3. Institutional reform  Greater autonomy needed for PROs, Universities and the laboratories and departments within them  Strategic approach  Greater managerial accountability including regular evaluation and assessment  Continue to experiment with institutional innovation under private contractual law  Explore potential of mergers and relocation of institutes

8. 4. Institutional assessment and competitive funding  Allocate a proportion of national funding on the basis of institutional assessment  Performance indicators plus peer review with international component  Criteria to include excellence, impact and strategy to achieve these  A ‘viral reform’ to achieve multiplier effects  Funding focussed on competitive grants

9. 5. Strategic Innovation Arenas as coordination initiative  Break down silos by creating Strategic Innovation Arenas Business-led initiatives in key areas of focus and targeting global competitive environments Nation-wide public-private partnerships with public & private innovation actors plus regulators/procurers Spanning national agencies and autonomous communities Building on CENIT and CIEN (co-operative programmes)

10. 6. Bring more business actors into the innovation system  Insufficient numbers of small and medium-sized firms active in innovation Capability problem blocks participation in programmes and absorptive capacity  Extend substantially schemes to put supervised researchers into companies Additional benefit of generating employment  Can be paid for by transfer of resources from fiscal incentives Direct measures allow for greater targeting and return

11. 7. Market and culture for innovation  Exposure to international markets will drive innovation in virtuous circle Strengthening of support needed for international cooperation and exports  Need to foster domestic markets for innovative products and services Framework conditions include competition law, availability of finance, education & training, infrastructure & services, and conditions for entrepreneurship  More use needed of procurement to drive innovation Innovation should be part of mission statement for all with procurement budgets at national and regional level

12. 8. Autonomous Agency to implement the reform programme  Need to implement the national research agency Stable funding and procedures with small number of broad and flexible policy instruments  Two key functions Excellence through grants & fellowships Knowledge exchange to drive economic and social impact  Ministry retaining core functions Resource allocation across agencies, setting national priorities, operating accountability for performance Ensuring R&I is mainstream to economic agenda of government Legislation to support reform

13. 9. Incentivise regional synergies to support business & business creation  Use smart specialisation as organising principle to engage innovation support actors in building world class innovation clusters  Fine-tune policy mix for R&I in firms Reduce hurdles and time to obtain support Develop nation scheme for innovation vouchers

14. 10. Effective monitoring & evaluation to support evidence-based policy Strong evaluation culture to shape R&I policy and decisions Some gaps and fragmentation in present information base especially at regional level All new initiatives should require explicit rationale and verifiable objectives Independent and public monitoring and evaluation should be the norm  Capacity building in Spanish R&I policy analysis and evaluation communities  Completes the policy cycle and allows a learning system