About

The Centre for Research & Development Monitoring (Expertisecentrum Onderzoek en Ontwikkelingsmonitoring, ECOOM) is an interuniversity consortium with participation of all Flemish universities (KU Leuven, UGent, VUB, UAntwerpen and UHasselt). Its mission is to develop a consistent system of R&D and Innovation (RD&I) indicators for the Flemish government. This indicator system has to assist the Flemish government in mapping and monitoring the RD&I efforts in the Flemish region.

ECOOM's activity supports the Flemish government's ambition to consolidate and to further develop its position as a European innovation intensive region. To serve this ambition, a well-developed RD&I indicator system is needed. This is the challenge the Flemish government has taken on, together with ECOOM. To this end, ECOOM collaborates intensely with all relevant actors in the Flemish RD&I system: universities, research institutes and industry. The government agencies EWI and VLAIO are close partners in this endeavor.

This website provides you with an overview of the activities of ECOOM. You will find detailed information on our major tasks, you will be able to download research reports and studies, and you will have access to publicly available RD&I statistics for Flanders.

1999-2000

• First edition of the Flemish Indicatorbook on Science, Technology and Innovation, under the supervision of an editorial board, chaired by Marc Luwel en Koenraad Debackere (1999).
• Discussions on the use of bibliometric data to support the distribution of the BOF-subsidies to fund fundamental research at the Flemish universities.
• The Flemish Government decides to create a number of “Steunpunten Beleidsgericht Onderzoek”, of which the “Steunpunt O&O Statistieken” is the one responable for the domains science, technology and innovation.

2002

• The “Steunpunt O&O Statistieken” has been created with the mission to collect and to report the bibliometric (SCIE) and technometric (USPTO & EPO) data for the Flemish region.

2003

• The “Steunpunt O&O Statistieken” starts to organize and process the R&D (OECD) and CIS ( Eurostat) surveys for the Flemish region.
• From this year onward, the Flemish Indicatorbook on Science, Technology and Innovation is published every two years following a standardized format.

2005-2008

• Extension of several bibliometric and technometric parameters in the key distribution mechanisms of various research & innovation subsidies (BOF, IOF, Basisfinanciering) for the Flemish universities.

2007

• The “Steunpunt O&O Statistieken” is transformed into an interuniversitary consortium, now named “Steunpunt O&O Indicatoren”. All Flemish universities participate in this consortium.
• The creation of a database concerning PhD’s (and their mobility) in Flanders becomes a new work package for the “Steunpunt O&O Indicatoren”.

2008

• Bibliometric basic data are extended to all journal and proceedings editions of the Web of Science Core Collection and to the PCT patents. At that time a license is purchased on the Scopus database.

2009

• The “Steunpunt O&O Indicatoren” is transformed into ECOOM, the “Center for R&D Monitoring” to guarantee its continuity as a provider of R&D data and indicators to the Flemish Government on a permanent basis.
• At the same time, the development of a bibliometric basic database for the Humanities and the Social Sciences, Vlaams Academisch Bibliografisch Bestand (VABB-SHW), is started.

2010

• The R&D expenditures of the Flemish business enterprise sector are reported yearly instead of two-yearly (alternating sources are the R&D survey and the innovation survey (CIS)).