Science Policy and Indicators

"When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be."
    — Lord Kelvin, 1883

Source: Sir William Thompson (Baron Kelvin of Largs). Popular Lectures and Addresses Volume I. Lecture on "Electrical Units of Measurement" (delivered 1883). London: Macmillan and Co., 1889, pp. 73-74.

Developing quantitative perspectives on investments in and performance of science and technology worldwide has important policy making consequences. Several InSTePP projects develop quantitative indicators of key science and technology elements, typically from an international perspective.

A time-series estimate of the overall public and private investments in R&D worldwide is under development. An update of global investments in agricultural R&D was released late in 2005, and more such data are in the works. Various metrics of intellectual property claims and grants in the biosciences are also under on-going development.

Data resources and related publications developed by InSTePP and others can be accessed soon.

Core Collaborating Individuals and Institutions

Sanford Weisberg
University of Minnesota, School of Statistics

Steven Dehmer
InSTePP Graduate Research Assistant

Jennifer Drew
InSTePP Graduate Research Assistant

Bonwoo Koo
University of Waterloo and InSTePP

Carol Nottenburg
Cougar Patent Law and InSTePP