This paper first develops a framework for the analysis of national research systems, with particular focus on the excellence of scientific and technological research, a central topic for the current European research and innovation policy discourse. Next, after carefully considering measurement and data issues, it proposes a set of strong and weaker country-level indicators of research excellence, based on which a composite indicator of scientific and technological research excellence is proposed and tested for robustness and sensitivity.
The research was conducted on behalf of DG-RTD within the framework of the 'Composites_4_IU' project.JRC.G.3-Econometrics and applied statistic
