|
Download this report.
This report contains both a bibliometric analysis and a patent analysis of the domain of biotechnology in Flanders. It is modelled after the template that has been developed by Steunpunt O&O Statistieken and that has been applied earlier to the study of nanotechnology. The template is based on a systematic analysis of the two main data sources, bibliometric and patent data, available at Steunpunt O&O Statistieken. Using the template, it becomes possible to analyse the status of any domain of technological activity and to assess its strengths and weaknesses in terms of publication and patent outputs.
As the reader will see, the template does not only present first-order count and frequency data with respect to biotechnology-related publications and patents in Flanders. The nature and the structure of the data at our disposal indeed also allow for more sophisticated analyses such as the examination of international collaboration patterns in both biotechnology publishing and patenting, as well as a highly detailed analysis of the status of specialisation in Flemish biotechnology relative to a set of benchmark countries.
Given the specific data set-up at Steunpunt O&O Statistieken, the data sources used in this report are (1) the SCIE (Science Citation Index Expanded) data as they are present in the Web-of-Science produced and published by ISI and (2) the EPO and USPTO patent data. As biotechnology has reached quite some maturity as a domain of scientific and technological enquiry, detailed retrieval and classification schemes for both types of datasources have been developed and validated. Fraunhofer Institute, EC High Level Working Groups and OECD have been at the origin of these schemes. We have used them wherever necessary in this report.
In addition, biotechnology is a domain of scientific and technological activity that has reached a level of maturity where it now becomes more widely diffused across many different sectors of scientific and technological activity. For this reason, we have adapted and enlarged the “traditional” and “validated” retrieval and classification schemes for publications and patents with new categories that have been the result of intensive discussions with a group of experts from the field. We especially want to thank Dr. Bury and Dr. De Keyzer of the Flemish Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) for their insights and contributions to enlarging the established classification and retrieval schemes. In the report, we have therefore always made a distinction between the so-called “core” categories and the newly added categories. This allows the reader to better understand where we have left the validated paths of retrieval and classification to include new ones. By focusing on the distinction, we were also able to present international comparisons that are in line with the publications and the analyses provided by official agencies like Eurostat and OECD.
The results obtained show a buoyant and thriving Flemish biotechnology community, both in the academic and the private sector. The significant stimuli provided by the Flemish government over the last decades have clearly paid off when it comes to developing and maintaining a leadership position for Flanders in the international scientific and technical biotechnology community.
|
