30 Mar 2026
EC publishes new framework of metrics and indicators for knowledge valorisation
On 30 March 2026, the European Commission published the outcomes of an expert study providing a new framework to track how research is turned into value in Member States and associated countries of the ERA. The proposed framework will help these countries to evaluate the impact of their actions, ensuring that innovation reaches society and enhances competitiveness in Europe.
The new framework captures the "multifaceted value" of valorisation activities - from commercial breakthroughs to better public policy and community engagement. With the proposed 16 indicators and 41 metrics, countries can now better measure how research and innovation investments strengthen their economy and society.
The framework looks into both immediate outputs and long-term impacts of research. It includes established and new metrics that track the commercialisation of research, such as co-patents between industry and academia, the use of intellectual property, venture capital investment in spinouts, and the number of startups led by PhD holders, among others. Furthermore, it suggests new metrics to assess the contribution of research to standardisation. Additionally, it proposes metrics to measure how research contributes to policymaking, as well as metrics to evaluate the engagement of societal actors in knowledge valorisation.
The study also identifies areas for improvements, particularly the need for:
- agreeing on definitions for key units of measurement (i.e. ‘startup’, ‘scaleup’, ‘spinout’, IP-based firm’)
- recognising that maturity of dataset and collection practices vary
To address this, the study makes recommendations for pilot testing of the metrics, along with further refining the methodology and improving alignment of data. Qualitative surveys or case studies could also provide interesting insights to complement the metrics.
The EC points out that selected metrics will inform the ERA monitoring mechanism and the Science, Research and Innovation Performance (SRIP) report. This study provides policymakers with a hands-on resource to track progress in knowledge valorisation and enhance the impact of European research.
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