Patents as indicators of the utility of European Community R and D programmes

The study was executed in the framework of the MONITOR-SPEAR Programme of the Commission of the European Communities (CEC). The aim of the study was to examine the utility of patent indicators for the evaluation of EC research programmes. The work comprises a critical review of the respective literature and the exemplary evaluation of selected EC programmes as well. In the exemplary part of the study, three EC programmes were chosen as sample exercises: the biotechnology programmes BEP and BAP, BRITE-I with the subfields laser working and membranes and the Medical and Health Research Programme (MHR) with the subfields cancer and AIDS research and radio therapy. For their evaluation, a standard set of patent indicators mostly derived from data of the European Patent Office (EPO) was defined. All in all, patent indicators can reveal the structures of R and D performance on a world-wide and an EC-level so that assumes disparities can be checked. A problem concerning the direct evaluation of programme results is the limited amount of the programme budgets compared to the European R and D activities in the total respective field. Patent indicators can not cover all aspects of programme evaluation, but they reveal a lot of supplementary facts which can effectively support the work of the evaluation panel.