Research and development in the field of Artificial Intelligence in EU framework programmes

The aim of this contribution is to evaluate the cooperation of the European countries in projects related to the AI in the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) and in the current Horizon 2020 Programme. The analysis is based on the information obtained from European Commission database eCORDA (External COmmon Research DAtawarehouse). Dynamic scientometric maps were constructed to describe in more detail the collaboration of European subjects in the EC funded AI research. Within the FP7, 1223 projects in the AI field received roughly 2,8 billion €. In the current H2020 programme the EC has already provided 2,1 billion € for 1081 projects in AI. In the FP7, higher education institutions dominated in both the number of awarded project and the received financial support. In the H2020 programme, a profound shift favouring business enterprise sector occurred. Approximately one third of AI projects in the FP7 was in the thematic area Information and Communication Technologies. In the H2020 programme the EC extended the support further to other thematic areas including global societal challenges especially in the field of transport and security. The extent of the involvement of the member countries varies extensively. The countries above average participating in the AI projects are Germany, Italy, Austria, Spain, Portugal, and Slovenia. The Czech Republic falls in the group of less participating countries. The Czech Republic also exhibits a smaller increase of the participation between RP7 and H2020. Universities involved in approximately two thirds of AI project have dominated in the Czech participation in the FP7. In the H2020 program their share in the AI project decreased by approximately 10 percent points. On the other side, their share of financial support was conserved. The most participating universities were the Czech Technical University Prague (24 projects, and 30% share of the EC contribution for the Czech AI projects) and the Brno University of Technology (14 projects, and 12,4% financial share). In the business enterprise sector Honeywell International s. r. o. attained the highest participation. The Czech subjects collaborate most frequently with German, British, Italian and French research teams.

Analysis of the investments intervention effect from operational programmes upon the R&D infrastructure of the Czech public universities

An analysis of the investments intervention effect from operational programmes in the programming period 2007–2013 upon the R&D infrastructure of the Czech public universities is presented. The analysis was based upon publicly available data, universities´ annual economic reports, and evaluations and analyses. A few indicators have been selected to quantify the effect of significant extension and upgrade of the universities´ R&D infrastructure where investments from structural funds amounted to 36 % of the universities´ total R&D expenditure. The effect of the financial intervention upon the performance in basic research was evaluated firstly by making use of the increase of publications number in impacted journals in the time windows 2009–2011 and 2015–2017, i.e. before the effective launch of the interventions, and after their termination. The share of foreign public funds (structural funds excluded) in the total R&D expenditure was the second indicator used. The effect upon the applied research performance was evaluated by comparing the difference of the number of patents and by the change in the share of private sources in the R&D expenditure. The analyses show an increase of the number of publications whereas the change in the share of the foreign public funds in the total R&D expenditure did not induce any positive trend. In parallel with the number of publications, the number of patents increased, too. The change in the share of the private sources in the R&D expenditure was unequivocally associated with a positive trend, especially in the out-of-Prague technical universities. For a more robust evaluation of the effect of the interventions financed by the structural funds an analogous analysis should be carried out after a longer time than the mere three years after the termination of the interventions.

Formation of research and development consortia in the Competence Centres programme

This paper aims to find out how the research consortia supported in the Competence Centres programme were created, what motives and factors decide on the involvement of various actors in these consortia. It is based on a combination of a questionnaire survey, structured interviews and analysis of quantitative data from the Research, Development and Innovation Information System. The most frequent motives of consortium members for involvement in competence centres were the development of their own research activities and access to knowledge / facilities shared by partners. The main beneficiary, or a narrow group of beneficiaries forming the core of the consortium, played a decisive role in shaping the consortium. The main factor for the involvement of individual members was the combination of previous experiences with partners and their competences. Furthermore, participating enterprises have developed and extensive research and development activities, do not compete, and their activities are complementary or linked. The differences in motives and factors for each type of partner can indicate the hierarchical arrangement of consortium members.

The share of private sources in the revenues of Czech public universities

Over the last several decades the traditional role of universities in their unique mission in education and research changed to include also the so-called third mission consisting in their active involvement in the socio-economic development of the society. Publicly available data from annual economic report of Czech public universities were analysed to demonstrate the universities´ ability to raise funding from off-budgetary sources which belongs to main characteristics of entrepreneurial university. Off-budgetary sources, where revenues for internal services prevailed, made in 2016 around 16 % of the total income of Czech public universities. The off-budgetary sources include in particular charges for accommodation and board, fees for entrance exam, tuition fees for students that exceed the standard length of studies by more than one year, and tuition fees for studies in a foreign language. The last fees make up to three quarters of all offbudgetary sources at universities that offer studies at medical faculties. The universities´ ability to execute the third role was due to limited availability of data accessed only partially by analysing revenues from knowledge transfer in supplementary activities that involve contractual research, income from licences, educational courses on demand, consultations and counselling. Contractual research in supplementary activities was the most important among the listed activities making up to 8 % of all off-budgetary sources revenues. In international comparison the Czech public universities raise about one half of revenues for R&D from entrepreneurial sources than EU-28 average and only one third compared to German universities. Revenues from license agreements are low making around 0.1 % of all revenues for R&D.

International cooperation in research and development of Artificial Intelligence – publication and patent activity

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the dynamically evolving research fields on the global scale. The world production of publication associated with the AI field increased by a third over the four-year period 2013–2017. Even less research intensive countries as Iran, Turkey, India and Indonesia appear to increase the share of the AI topics in their publication output. In the Czech Republic the fraction of publications in the AI field increased by approximately 10 % over this period. It makes the lowest increase within the EU/EEA. The field normalized citation index of the Czech publications in the year 2016 was above the world average but it is deeply below the top countries USA, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Singapore, and Norway. The extent of international cooperation in AI is generally below the world average. The Czech Republic falls into the group of less cooperating countries. The countries exhibiting the highest growth in AI research are underrepresented in the Czech cooperation portfolio. The fraction of Czech publications in AI coauthored by foreign authors is lower than the national average. It indicates a lower international collaboration in comparison with other research fields. CR falls also in the group of countries less engaged in the international cooperation. The Czech international collaboration misses the countries exhibiting the most vigorous R&D in AI. The international collaboration adds to the quality of the research. The Czech publications originating from the international collaboration are cited above the country average for the AI field. It is even more significant in the collaboration with researchers from the top countries in the AI R&D. The patent activity in the AI field has grown significantly in recent years. There is a marked increase of patent applications having inventors/applicants from more than one country. It indicates that the applied R&D in AI has a more international character in comparison with other technology fields. A high intensity of collaboration in the authorship of patent applications is within language and geographically neighbouring countries and with countries having a highly internationalized R&D system. Multinational corporations involved in international innovation networks contribute also to the international cooperation. ICT corporations like IBM, Google, or Microsoft which often employ foreign researchers have a dominant role in international cooperation. The R&D of the Czech enterprises is relatively closed to the international cooperation. Domestic enterprises in AI use foreign employees in a small extent. The domestic enterprises even do not tap into the pool of intellectual property authored by the Czech researchers. The majority of patents with participation of Czech inventors is registered by foreign corporations.

How to perceive quantitative indicators when assessing research policies

The purpose of our contribution is to discuss shortcomings of purely descriptive quantitative evaluation of research policies – based either on inputs (public investment, number of researchers), or outputs (publications, number of patents). To give an example we compare selected indicators across Visegrad countries in the period between 2006 and 2015. We conclude that both quantitative and qualitative perspectives as well as societal and political context should be taken into account when the performance of any R&D system and the impact of public investments into a public R&D sector are scrutinized.

Behavioural Additionality Evaluation of industrial R&D programmes, the case of the TIP programme

Behavioural additionality is defined as permanent (long-term) changes in all spheres of behaviour and general capabilities of supported companies as a consequence of public support received. It closely relates to the output additionality because it creates prerequisites for improvement of firms economic performance. This paper aims to show the concrete application of this concept in the evaluation of programmes in the Czech Republic on the example of the TIP programme. It also tries to outline certain aspects that cannot be captured on the one hand when looking only at input and output additionalities, but on the other hand they enable better understanding of these additionality types. The methodology used for assessing behavioural additionality is based on a qualitative approach, a mix of a questionnaire survey and structured interviews. The evaluation confirmed the applicability of the behavioural additionality concept for programmes evaluation in the Czech Republic and showed that both the short-term and long-term effects of the R&D support in the areas of cooperation, R&D activities and firms strategies have already occurred.

Efficiency of regional innovation policy tools: Support of innovative business in the South Moravian Region

During 15 years of implementation of the Regional Innovation Strategy of South Moravia, the support of innovative business evolved into a set of interconnected programmes for startups and innovative companies with a potential of growth and foreign expansion. Programmes of the South Moravian Innovation Centre (JIC) facilitate creation and development of technology oriented companies in the region, highly concentrated in prioritised high-tech branches corresponding with specialisation of the regional economy (IT, mechanical engineering etc.). Growth of highly qualified jobs (mainly in R&D) in these companies contributes to the increasing orientation of the region on knowledge intensive branches of economy. Emerging companies supported by the JIC show in average a longer lifespan and growth dynamics than comparable newly established companies in the region without this support. Realisation of the programmes also significantly contributes to building of high quality business environment in the region. Problematic aspects of support to innovative business in the South Moravian Region are linked mainly with poor network of investors able to stimulate faster growth of startups, with low motivation of university students to start their own business or with emerging dichotomy in the support of knowledge intensive businesses concentrated in Brno and insufficiently supported businesses with lower knowledge intensity, also operating in priority branches of the regional economy.

Efficiency of regional innovation policy tools: Support to incoming talents and specialists in the South Moravian Region

Highly qualified and creative people are the key prerequisite of innovation development of every region. Orientation at the development of talents and inflow of qualified people from abroad gained importance during 15 years of implementation of the South Moravian Regional Innovation Strategy. Through the Internationalisation programme, realised since 2006, the regional authority awards scholarships to students from non-EU countries studying at universities in Brno. A substantial part of supported students remains in the region after graduation, working at highly qualified positions. The SoMoPro programme – a unique support tool from Czech but also from European perspective – contributes to the increase of internationalisation and quality of research conducted in South Moravia. Recognised foreign researchers are motivated to move to Brno especially thanks to the newly built top quality research infrastructure. However, turning their short to mid-term stays into a long-term residence is rather difficult given not sufficiently motivating wages in public R&D in Czechia. The needs of increasing number of foreign researchers and other specialists mainly in private sector are addressed by the Brno Expat Centre. In the last years, the number of clients and consultations provided by the organisation grew continuously. Despite more significant impact of national and international mobility schemes and other influences, the aggregate effect of regional activities supporting inflow and maintaining of foreign talents and specialists leads to the increasing attractiveness of the region and the development of a competitive advantage above the other regions of Czechia. Thus the described regional activities contribute to high shares of foreign students and researchers in the region, placing South Moravia on leading positions among Czech regions.

Efficiency of regional innovation policy tools: Support to research-industry cooperation through the JIC Voucher programme

Support to research-industry cooperation belongs to main priorities of the Regional Innovation Strategy of South Moravia, also considering the shortcomings identified in cooperation and knowledge transfer between these sectors. Establishing links between companies and research institutions was aimed by the JIC Voucher (2009–2015) programme, the first programme of innovation vouchers in Czechia. Even though the support of new partnerships between companies and research institutions was the main goal of the programme, the number of supported partnerships of formerly cooperating entities was higher. A follow-up cooperation, usually on financially larger research projects, took place in more than one third of supported partnerships. Thus the programme positively affected a part of participating companies to spend higher amounts on R&D needed for co-financing of projects funded from national R&D programmes. The follow-up projects were more often realised by partners cooperating even before receiving the voucher. Also the non-approved projects of formerly cooperating partners were more often realised using other sources of funds than projects of those newly cooperating on an application for innovation voucher. Despite significant benefits of JIC Voucher to strengthening cooperation between companies and research institutions, the support to large companies – also enabled by the programme – can be viewed as inessential. This is obvious especially with respect to resources and experience with research cooperation usually held by these companies.