This report presents the main outcomes from the project titled Assessing the Impacts of the Policy Mix for Knowledge Transfer, conducted in 2017-18 by the OECD Working Party on Innovation and Technology Policy (TIP). The main goals of the project were to analyse the impacts of public research institutions on innovation performance, as well as to explore the policy instruments and mixes implemented across countries to support science-industry knowledge transfer. The project builds on the expertise of the Working Party in knowledge transfer and public research policy domains, and is the follow-up to a previous project on Assessing the Impacts of Public Research Systems (2015-16). This strand of work will continue in 2019-20, with a focus on knowledge co-creation.

This report presents the main outcomes of the OECD TIP Working Party’s Assessing the Impacts of the Policy Mix for Knowledge Transfer project (2017-18). The report targets in particular policy makers, and contains the main findings and policy recommendations of the project. The report is a synthesis of different materials produced in the context of the project.

The increasing importance of knowledge-based capital, both for competitiveness and to address socio-economic challenges, benefits those countries with strong public research and the ability to effectively use research findings to innovate. It therefore becomes ever more important to understand how public investments in research can generate the greatest impacts on innovation. This report provides fresh evidence regarding those impacts, and explores policy tools implemented across OECD countries to support science-industry knowledge transfer.

Science-industry knowledge transfer unfolds through various formal and informal channels, the relative importance of which varies across science fields and industry sectors. Formal channels include collaborative and contract research, academic consultancy, intellectual property transactions, labour mobility and academic spin-offs. Informal channels of interaction include conferencing and networking, facility sharing, and continuing education provided by universities to enterprises, to name a few.