FCT joins OECD project on public funding for R&D and Innovation

The national register of funding allocated to R&D and Innovation in Portugal - SciPROJ -, developed by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), through its FCCN Unit, has begun a process of integration into Fundstat, a data infrastructure of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which brings together information from 22 databases in various countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, and the European Commission.

Fundstat is an infrastructure for international analysis and comparison of public funding for R&D and Innovation projects, making the most of the wealth of semantic information in project information, using artificial intelligence tools, specifically natural language processing. In addition to producing appropriate information and indicators on funding, this infrastructure aims to analyze the directionality of public funding, identifying emerging scientific and technological areas. In this context, and based on the information already available on Fundstat, public investment in the area of Artificial Intelligence and investment related to the Covid-19 pandemic has recently been analyzed and is awaiting publication.

SciPROJ is the national database, developed under the PTCRIS program, which aggregates national (FCT, QREN, Portugal 2020 and ANI) and international (European Union) funding records that support science and technology activities carried out in Portugal. PTCRIS aims to promote the integration of the science management systems of the various entities operating in the academic-scientific ecosystem, with a view to complying with the principle "Register once, reuse many times". These initiatives are part of the open data policy of the FCT and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (MCTES).

This sharing will make it possible to integrate information on Portugal into future studies carried out by the OECD and to obtain information on the directionality of funding in relevant areas, such as the Green Transition and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The integration of data on R&D and Innovation funding in Portugal into this OECD analytical infrastructure is part of FCT's participation, through the Studies and Planning Division (DEP), in the MARIAD (Management and Analysis of R&D and Innovation Administrative Data) working group. MARIAD was created in 2022 as part of NESTI (National Experts on Science and Technology Indicators) and aims to use administrative data on R&I funding to inform evidence-based policy-making.

The OECD has 38 member countries committed to promoting democracy and the market economy, supporting governments in exercises to compare experiences, good practices and the coordination of their policies, as well as in the search for answers and solutions to common problems.