Monitoring Research and Innovation Policies in the Mediterranean Region

Abstract

The article shows how new policy tools are designed in the Mediterranean countries for the monitoring of research and innovation. It relies on the results of a large European project, ESTIME, funded by the European Union that aimed at describing the state of research and technology policies and systems of partner countries in the Mediterranean. Other initiatives are also mentioned that aimed at gathering information on research and innovation systems in the Middle East and North African countries (MENA). The article presents the importance of the European Union as a reference for this monitoring activity. It also shows that the new tools, for example, innovation surveys, are a part of the policy process itself. Finally, it presents the main characteristics of public policies, their recent turn toward innovation and the effects that these policies have had on the institutions and actors promoting innovation which we propose to call the ‘innovation world’. Two examples are presented in more detail, Tunisia and Morocco, since both countries have been actively promoting innovation policies and have developed innovation surveys.

The marginalization of the Arab language in social science: Structural constraints and dependency by choice

“…Our reflections are based on a variety of data and fieldwork we have performed, as well as the personal, although different, experience of both authors on the structure of scientific research in Lebanon, and organizations performing research in the Arab world (Arvanitis, 2007;Arvanitis and M'henni, 2010;Hanafi, 2011;Hanafi and Arvanitis, 2014). We used a specific survey by questionnaire that serves the purpose of organizing the issues at stake.…”

Entrepreneurship and sustainability: The need for innovative and institutional solutions

“…6 The choice of CO 2 emissions as the dependent variable in this study is driven mainly by data availability and also to maximize the number of observations. 7 Selection of the period of study was driven by the availability of data on entrepreneurship. • Gross Domestic Product (GDP): GDP since the 1930s has been the most widely used measure of national growth worldwide (Lippman, 2009).…”

Mapping the Agricultural Research Systems in the Maghreb (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia)

“…These centres do not work exclusively on agricultural-related topics. These figures show both a strengthening of research capacities in the universities and a diversification of the production sites (see also Arvanitis & M'Henni, 2010). , 1982).…”

“…A bibliometric study focusing on agriculture and veterinary sciences in the region in 2005–2019 based on the Scopus database was conducted. However, we also rely on the results of the evaluations of the agricultural systems that have been undertaken in the three countries—usually as part of a larger exercise of monitoring their research capacities (Arvanitis & M’Henni, 2010). The Moroccan Ministry in charge of higher education and scientific research (MESFCRS) undertook such a national evaluation for the first time in 2002, considering all scientific fields, including agriculture (Waast & Kleiche-Dray, 2009).…”