Characteristics of Highly Innovating Firms in the UK
Call for Expressions of Interest
The Knowledge and Innovation Analysis team in BIS seeks expressions of interest
in the following research project on Highly Innovative Firms in the UK.
Background
This project aims to extend recent analyses of highly-innovative firms using data
from the UK Innovation Survey (UKIS). UKIS is part of the EU’s Community
Innovation Survey, and collects data on approximately 12000 UK firms, focusing
on expenditures on innovation, innovation outputs (in the form of sales from new
and technologically changed products), perceptions of obstacles to innovation,
sources of information for innovation, and patterns of inter-firm and interorganisational collaboration in innovation. This data is available in fully
disaggregated for within the VML Lab. A distinctive feature of the UK data, as with
other countries in the CIS, is that innovation activity is distributed in a highly
asymmetrical way. That is, a relatively small proportion of the realised sample,
roughly 20% of firms, accounts for a very large proportion of innovation activity,
whether this is measured by inputs or outputs. These can be considered ‘Highly
Innovative Firms’. An important policy challenge is to understand the nature and
characteristics of this set of firms.
Key Objectives
The aim of this project is to analyse the characteristics of these highly innovative
firms within the 2011 UKIS data set, exploring the following broad research
questions:
1. Are highly innovative firms also high growth firms, in terms of output,
employment and productivity?
2. Do highly innovative firms collaborate more closely with science institutions,
especially universities and publicly-supported research establishments?
What is the sectoral and regional pattern of such collaboration? What firm
characteristics are associated with such collaboration?
3. How do highly-innovative firms respond to recessionary environments in
terms of innovation investments?
Aim
The main objective of this study is to inform decision-making within the Innovation
Directorate of BIS.
Provisional Timescales
Closing date for expressions of interest
Invitation to tender issued
Closing date for tenders
Notification of outcome of tender review
June 27th 2012
July 6th 2012
Approx 23rd July 2012
Approx 1st August 2012
Requirements
We would welcome expressions of interest from individuals, organisations, or
consortia, outlining their suitability for the project in no more than 750 words by
12 noon on 27th June 2012.
Expressions of interest will be assessed using the following criteria, using a scale
of 1 (Excellent level of evidence) to 5 (Little or no evidence):
1. Knowledge and experience of collecting and managing quantitative and
qualitative data and the relevant methodologies for exploiting linked data.
2. Knowledge and experience in using data within the VML Lab system.
3. Knowledge and experience of approaches to quantitative analysis in
science, innovation and related fields.
4. Knowledge of science and innovation policy and research background.
A different set of criteria will be used to assess the eventual tenders.
Your expression of interest should be emailed as an attachment in MS Word (or
Rich Text) format to [email protected].
Should you have any queries please contact [email protected].