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Introduction to the IPTS

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Outline

● history of the Institute– the 2004 IPTS strategic review

● our core competences

● our core policy fields

● our customers

● relations with our sister Institutes

● measures of our success

● challenges for the future– to become a reference centre for economic modelling

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A brief history

● IPTS came to Sevilla in 1994– to carry out technology watch and technology assessment

• to alert EU decision-makers about the implications of new technologies, across all technological fields, giving priority to the FP technologies

– to research the impact of new technologies on European employment and industrial competitiveness

• established the Institute as a centre for technology foresight

● Has since evolved into a “Policy Studies Institute”– customer-driven– strongly focussed within four core policy fields

• competitiveness and sustainability• knowledge for growth• information society• agriculture and rural development

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The 2004 IPTS Strategic Review

● Our 2004 strategic review re-profiled the Institute– it redefined our core business as “techno-economic” support

to EU policy-making• where we define techno-economics as research “to provide science-

based responses to policy challenges that have a socio-economic as well as a scientific/technological dimension”

– moving the Institute away from its “prospective technological” origins– it focused our activities on a limited number of policy

challenges• where we could foresee a sustainable critical mass of business

– coupled with longer-term, more strategic relationships with our customers• and where we take on work only when it passes the “why IPTS?” test

● And it helped clarify our positioning with respect to sister institutes

• in particular, that techno-economics should not be the exclusive “property” of the IPTS

– except within the policy challenges we focus on

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Some key statistics

● Currently 180 staff, of which– 120 are research staff working on research

• 73 (61%) of the researchers have temporary contracts– with an average stay of ~3 years

• over half the researchers are less than 40 years old

● Have grown from 105 staff in 2003– expect to reach ~220 by 2011– fuelled chiefly by our ability to earn money from customers

• now pays for 27% of our staff complement

– research fellows are/will be a major source of growth• currently 36 fellows (29 postdocs, 5 experienced scientists, 2 PhD students)

● Annual expenditure is now running at ~€22 million– with over 30% earned from customers

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Our core techno-economic competences (1)

A. Carrying out analytical studies (currently ~60% of the Institute’s business)

● policy analysis and policy impact assessment (~45%)– supported by quantitative tools

• modelling, scenario building, econometrics, cost benefit analysis,…– and expert-based methods

• technological, economic and societal foresight, Delphi, benchmarking,…

● the socio-economics of new technologies and technology assessment (~15%)– supported by similar quantitative and expert-based methods

Note: One of the Institute’s goals is to become the Commission’s reference centre for economic modelling

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Our core techno-economic competences (2)

B. Running bureau services (~10%↑↑)

● bureaux drive a complex consensus-building process among stakeholders from all the Member States (the “Sevilla process”)– e.g. IPPC, Co-Existence, (Ecolabel, EMAS,…)

C. Providing platform services (~30%↑)

● intelligence services based on the systematic compilation and analysis of techno-economic data– e.g. IRI Scoreboard, REDICT, ERAWATCH,…

● economic modelling platforms for policy support– e.g. agriculture, energy, transport, climate change, environmental

economics, (regional development),…

B and C will continue to grow, moving towards a ratio of A:B:C::40:20:40 by 2011

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Our four core policy fields

1) Competitiveness and sustainability (now ~32% of research effort)– focusing on the economics of sustainability policies, relating mainly to the

manufacturing, energy and transport sectors

2) Knowledge for growth (~23%)– focusing on research policy and its interfaces with related policies,

especially innovation, education and regional development

3) Information society (~22%)– focusing on policies to stimulate Europe’s take-up of the Information

Society and to improve the competitiveness of Europe’s ICT industry

4) Agriculture and rural development (~18%)– focusing on the economic and social pillars of agriculture and RD policies

We also have small groups working on the socio-economic impact of new health technologies and on foresight as a methodology

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Our customers

● Commission services – our principal customers

● European Parliament– several studies for STOA and EP committees during FP6

• but nothing on at the moment

● Member States – as customers– primarily, direct help to New Member States with their

accession and integration• and to Candidate Countries with preparations for membership

● Member States – as beneficiaries– MS are also beneficiaries of a good part of our work for

Commission customers• eg the Bureaux, ERAWATCH, Foresight portal, …

– and we aim at being a good neighbour with ES partners

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Our Commission customers

● Meaningful medium- to long-term understandings with all core Commission customers

• DGRTD 24% (i.e. 24% of our research effort supports DGRTD)

• DGENV 21%• DGINFSO 16%• DGAGRI 14%• also with ENTR (8%), TREN (3%), EAC (3%), …

● Core customers understand that they have to pay for services beyond a certain baseline, currently

• DGRTD 60% (i.e. they pay for ~60% of our support to them)• DGINFSO 30%• DGAGRI 15% ↑• DGENV 10% ↑↑

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Measures of our success

● Good durable relationships with all our main customers …– that enable us to plan our work together

● … and we are now earning €6+ million a year from them– and that’s rising

● Many more requests for support than we can handle– so we can be selective about which we work we take on

● Success rate of 73% in FP6 indirect actions– 43 of 59 proposals submitted were successful

• 3/4 NoE, 3/6 IP, 14/16 STREP, 23/33 SSA – with nearly 500 partners in the successful projects