Monitoring Strategic Priorities in Research and Innovation: The Sea as a Case Study

The National Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisation (ENEI) is one of the pillars of Portugal 2020 - the Partnership Agreement between Portugal and the European Commission, for the use of Structural Funds in the 2014-2020 Programme Framework. Effectively, the 15 priority areas defined in the ENEI underpin the decisions on R&I policy and funding over the next five years.

FCT coordinates the working group created to identify scientific output indicators that will allow monitoring the evolution of strategic priorities during the lifetime of the ENEI. The goal of this project is to create a solid policy and management tool that can be used to inform R&I policy decisions, both in the short and medium term.

The working group aims to coordinate and maximize efforts and knowledge, bringing together technicians, managers and researchers from the FCT Office of Studies and Strategy, the Directorate General of Education and Science Statistics (DGEEC), the Directorate General of Sea Policy (DGPM), the Higher Institute of Sciences (ISCSP) of the University of Lisbon and the Institut Francilien Recherche Innovation Societé (IFRIS) in France.

Due to the complexity of the object of study - made up of several dimensions (knowledge, innovation, economy) - the team chose to begin by analyzing a single dimension from which to extract indicators. The knowledge production dimension was chosen. Next, and in order to develop and mature the methodological approach, they selected the area of the economy of the sea for a pilot case study, from which they will be able to extrapolate the methodology to other priority areas of the ENEI. Some of the questions to which the group seeks answers are: What are the main national knowledge clusters in the Marine Sciences? Who are the main actors? How do they collaborate among themselves, and internationally?

The team compiled preliminary maps of the Marine Sciences clusters in Portugal, based on co-occurrence of keywords, collected from experts in the area of sea/oceans (e.g. coastal areas, deep sea, offshore, seabed), and also co-occurrence of topics, cities and institutions. These first results were presented to researchers from the main national Sea Science research centers for comments and validation at a workshop in July. The researchers welcomed the work being done, recognizing its value in creating a sound scientific basis for future science policy decisions. The various proposals for new keywords to be included in the database search were welcomed by the project team for their potential to refine the search, and thus better describe the landscape of Marine Science clusters in the country.