Fourth Semmering Science and Technology Forum
December 3-5, 1999, Vienna, Austria

The Fourth Semmering Science and Technology Forum entitled "Institutional Changes: Efficiency and Effectiveness - Economic and Political Aspects of European Science and Technology Policies for the 21st Century" took place in Vienna from December 3rd to 5th 1999 and was organised jointly by the Interdisciplinary Centre for Comparative Research in Social Sciences (ICCR) and the European Association for the Advancement of the Social Sciences (EA).

The Forum, while retaining the general overview of the problems already addressed at previous meetings, attempted to focus on specific emergent themes in S&T policy, such as institutional changes (whether at the European or national levels), research and science policy evaluation, interplay between S&T and innovative entrepreneurial economic agents in a globalised world economy as well as decision-making processes (and their linkage with democracy). The impact of science policy evaluation and research evaluation on efficiency and effectiveness of RTD was thereby a topic to which special attention was paid.

The Forum’s topics were addressed by 55 participants from 27 European countries. It took place over two and a half days, which were divided into three units, each covering one of the issues relevant for this year’s theme.

The first day was dedicated to discussing prospects and reforms of European Science and Technology policies. The first session addressed the need to identify and discuss the main guiding principles, choices and priorities for a new European S&T policy in order to serve basic needs and aspirations of citizens in the 21st century. To this end, it proved imperative to encourage a universal agenda of S&T which will identify and promote new development trajectories, stimulate effective use of existing and future knowledge, skills and technology and assess and implement democratic public policies that would be capable of fostering and pursuing new forms of transnational S&T co-operation geared towards a more equitable and sustainable development.

These presentations represented a good basis for the discussion that followed on aims and limitations of institutional reforms that are under way both at the level of the European Union and of individual countries. Fostering efficiency and effectiveness, as well as applicability of devised research, represent thereby a common denominator for all of these reforms. Exchange of examples and experiences from virtually all countries undergoing transition served to better understanding of these processes and more efficient integration of transition countries into international networks.

The Day 2 continued by discussing the issues related to users of RTD and relation between innovation and entrepreneurship. The economic considerations can be understood here as a special case of the user-oriented approach. On one hand, it is related to the economic use of research results and, on the other hand, to the private generation of knowledge and its application. The question of entrepreneurial innovative behaviour and its re-conceptualisation plays another important role.

The globalisation and internationalisation of economy and rapid pace of development of modern technologies have been the earmarking trends that both the developed countries and those undergoing transition from planned to market economy will continue to face into the 21st century. The constructive interference between the two represents one of the most important challenges. The impact of S&T on the productivity and competitiveness, transfer of knowledge and technology between the main actors (public and private enterprises, research institutions, state) and role of national and supranational mechanisms aimed at facilitating that interaction were some of the topics discussed in this session, whether they take place in the framework of well-established institutional schemes or in systems incorporated in the overall transition context.

As a way of conclusion, the Forum addressed the question of evaluation cultures. This referred to both the evaluation of research itself as well as to the evaluation of research policies. Successful evaluation presumes a corresponding evaluation culture, i.e. routines of evaluation that legitimise policy in the same way as the commitment of research funds and the control of efficiency.

The emergence of evaluation research as an international activity provides a potential for knowledge production and transfer which has been largely underexplored. The subjects and methods of evaluation are in many ways formed by intended utilisation, which is in turn influenced by politics and policy considerations. The interaction between research and public policy in various national and international contexts was explored, whereby the topic was addressed from the point of view of both national and international research programmes. The objective was, on one hand, to develop comparable level of expertise of the Forum participants, and on the other hand, to provide appropriate substantive emphasis for next year’s Forum.

In sum, the Fourth Semmering Science and Technology Forum was a full success. Not only did the participants (whose number increased from 17 last year to 55 this year) take part in (and followed) interesting and inspiring presentations (which was confirmed by lively and stimulating discussions) but also the format of the Forum allowed for in-depth communication between the participants from all parts of Europe.

The Forum also managed to successfully shift from the general East-West-oriented approach to discussing specific RTD-related topics that are relevant for all the European countries. The transition in majority of post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union, both in general and in the RTD context, is entering a phase where it is not any more important to concentrate only on day-to-day issues of managing the hardship of transformation, but also to devise and address certain strategic goals, that are, in turn, similar to those in the countries of Western Europe.

In that respect, the Forum proved to be a very successful tool for exchange of experiences and know-how in both directions. The next (fifth) Forum that will be entirely dedicated to issues related to research and science policy evaluation will thus be designed to further foster such approach.

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