Working Document: Towards a vision for research, technology and innovation cooperation between Russia and the EU, its Member States and Associated States

This Working Document outlines development perspectives for cooperation in research, technology and innovation (RTI) between the EU, its Member States (MS), countries associated to the EU’s FP7 (AC), and Russia. The Working Document has been prepared in the framework of the ERA.Net RUS project and is based on a comprehensive foresight exercise implemented over the years 2010-2013 and on analysis of ongoing RTI cooperation. In-depth discussions among the ERA.Net RUS and ERA.Net RUS Plus consortiums and Funding Parties, and in the frame of expert workshops with policy makers and analysts provided essential input. Furthermore, results of other related projects (such as BILAT-RUS, BILAT-RUS Advanced, ACCESSRU, etc.) have been studied. The paper proposes a vision on enhancing the cooperation between EU MS/AC and Russia overall, as well as a specific follow-up vision for the ERA.Net RUS and ERA.Net RUS Plus projects.JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growt

Industry level foresight: designing foresight methods for Lithuanian energy sector

Enterprise and Work Innovation Studies,6,IET, pp.9-51This paper has its starting point in the background analysis of the Lithuanian energy sector after closing down the only Lithuanian nuclear power plant in 2010. Based on the hypothesis that one of the main governance failures in this sector leading to weak industry level strategies is the lack of participatory debate and sufficient linkages between the different actors involved in the dynamic of the energy sector in Lithuania, this paper proposes industry level foresight as an instrument of long term planning. Foresight exercises could become an important instrument for reorienting energy sector policy, building new networks and linkages among the different actors, bringing new stakeholders into the strategic debate, exploring future opportunities State investment (including R&D), etc. The primary objective of this paper is therefore the design of a foresight exercise on energy sector with the aim of producing a long term strategy for this sector. The secondary objective is to address a topic on how to select foresight methods at industry level. The argument is that a better understanding of the fundamental attributes of foresight methods and their linkages to the core phases of a foresight process can provide useful insights as to how the selection of methods is carried out. The method applied in this paper is dual: firstly, the synthesis of the academic literature on the selection of foresight methods is carried out; secondly, the comparative case study analysis of three foresight cases in the Baltic Sea Region (Poland, Finland and Russia) is applied. Case study analysis allows to explore the usage of foresight methods at industry level in the Baltic Sea Region and to understand if there are any similarities in the approach, also to explore success factors and weaknesses. The analysis in this paper is comprised of four main parts. The first part provides a background analysis on the energy sector in Lithuania and justification for the foresight exercise. Second part describes the underlying frameworks and definitions in the field of foresight research. The third part develops a comparative analysis of case studies of industry level foresight. The third part provides recommendations for energy sector foresight methodology in Lithuania. The paper combines concepts and frameworks from literature (such as the Foresight Process and the Foresight Diamond) with comparative practical case study analysis. The results can be utilised by lecturers and students to describe and understand better the use of foresight methods at industry level, and by practitioners of foresight to better inform decisions during the design of more coherent methodological frameworks; as well as by the energy sector stakeholders in Lithuania and other countries

The issues of covering science and technical policy of modern Russia in the strategic planning documents

This paper presents the evaluation of the current relations between the documents of strategic planning in the sphere of science and technology; the main issues of reflecting scientific and technological priorities in strategic documents are discussed; recommendations on improving the system of strategic planning in the sphere of innovation and scientific and technological development are given.peer-reviewe

Foresight in governments – practices and trends around the world

This study provides the initial results of a survey of foresight activities undertaken by a select group of governments around the world.The study was begun following the recent initiative by European Union (EU) in- stitutions to build a joint foresight capacity (European Strategy and Policy Analysis System – ESPAS) that assesses long-term global trends to help them strengthen policy planning. In addition to contributing to the discussion about this new EU activity, the study is also intended to be of interest for the wider European policy planning community and to anyone interested in learning about how governments practise ‘the art of the long view’ (Schwartz, 1991).This study looks at the way governments approach foresight, the issues they try to grapple with and the challenges they face in connecting foresight and policy. Its focus is on foresight exercises that look ten years or more into the future. The study does not include within its scope foresight activities undertaken at the initiative of business, academic or non-governmental organisations, though some government-led activities do involve these other actors.Foresight work includes a range of activities related to the production of knowledge about possible futures. This knowledge is not of the future, nor any real future, but rather ‘the manufactured knowledge of [a] restricted number of possibilities’ (Sardar, 2010). The output of foresight work very often involves the creation of scenarios for the future which can be analysed for their likelihood and potential impact. Foresight also commonly uses practices such as ‘trend impact analysis’, ‘horizon scanning’, or the Delphi method.This study presents an initial tour d’horizon of a limited number of countries who undertake foresight activities: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US). The countries were chosen to represent a diverse selection of countries based on location, economic profile, power status and political regime. The analysis is based on desk research and interviews conducted with professionals in government, academia and think tanks. This study also looked at the foresight activities of a range of international organisations with mandates for public service and which interact with governments as sources of knowledge and policy advice. As foresight activity tends to be scattered across departments and not always made public, it was not possible to be exhaustive in our analysis of the countries in this study. Time constraints and language barriers may also have affected the outcome of the study.The first part of the study identifies the main issues that governments grapple with and offers a preliminary historical overview to shed light on current practice. The second part compares the approaches to foresight taken by governments and the institutional setting for foresight activities. The third part tries to assess the conditions for fruitful foresight

Nanotechnology Publications and Patents: A Review of Social Science Studies and Search Strategies

This paper provides a comprehensive review of more than 120 social science studies in nanoscience and technology, all of which analyze publication and patent data. We conduct a comparative analysis of bibliometric search strategies that these studies use to harvest publication and patent data related to nanoscience and technology. We implement these strategies on 2006 publication data and find that Mogoutov and Kahane (2007), with their evolutionary lexical query search strategy, extract the highest number of records from the Web of Science. The strategies of Glanzel et al. (2003), Noyons et al. (2003), Porter et al. (2008) and Mogoutov and Kahane (2007) produce very similar ranking tables of the top ten nanotechnology subject areas and the top ten most prolific countries and institutions.nanotechnology, research and development, productivity, publications, patents, bibliometric analysis, search strategy

Strategy of systemic development of entrepreneurial infrastructure of regional economy

Implementation of flexibility, sustainability, and dynamics of modern economy is largely determined by the state of its infrastructure. According to this, the level of complexity and completeness of development of infrastructural complex influences the sense and characteristics of territorial and sectorial organization of public production, as well as quality and living standards of regions’ population. Formation of clear priorities of the development will allow determining the coordinated strategic directions, reaching the balance of the planned actions which requires significant resource and organizational expenses (Strategic planning, 2015), providing increase of the quality of infrastructure of regional economy, its transformation into a complex, multilevel system, in view of implementation of innovations which model transformations that are dictated by new economic situation and by new requirements of consumers and economic subjects to infrastructural services.peer-reviewe

Energy policy and regulatory challenges in natural gas infrastructure and supply in the energy transition in Sweden

Sweden is undergoing a major energy transition in which the present regulatory, competition and energy decisions will determine future involvement in the “oil and gas game” after decades of successful implementation of non-fossil fuel dependence policies. Contrary to major energy policies implemented since the oil crisis of the 70’s, higher natural gas investment in infrastructure – in particular regarding offshore pipelines – is not an outcome of a consented agreement between the government and private firms. The lack of clear governmental definition towards the time to phase out nuclear terminals, and how this source of energy would be replaced, is leading the country towards an energy bottleneck that could condition future energy supply, thus governance. Under these conditions, crucial decisions shall be taken in the near future regarding granting permissions to pipelines that connect to the Russian natural gas fields following an EU trend, to the Norwegian natural gas reserves on the trail of a Nordic energy path-dependence, or to both, sharing potential benefits and risks.Energy policy; Future energy supply; Natural gas infrastructure; Energy transition; Sweden; Russian natural gas fields; Norwegian natural gas reserves; Swedish energy transition.

Conditions of development of rural territories: Russian and foreign experience

Currently, the issues of sustainable development of rural territories for Russia have gained particular relevance. Meanwhile, these issues have been given due attention over the years. The current Russian system of program-targeted management of rural development does not have a ubiquitous effect, although it has definitely positive results. This is evidenced by sociological surveys of villagers, who in most cases note the invariability of the socio-economic situation. Foreign experience in the development of agriculture and rural areas has led to the need to use the principles of ecological agriculture with the practical production of organic products, which allows us to successfully solve social and economic problems. At the same time, the experience of using Foresight projects with a well-known implementation algorithm, which has gained its relevance in Russia recently, has long been positively recommended abroad. Given the many identified problems in managing the development of rural territories in Russia, it is important to use elements of foreign experience and to carry out immediate work to improve the current program-target approach.

Modernization of the Russian Economy : Fossil Fuels, Diversification, and the Shackles of International Political Economy

Peer reviewe