Frascati Manual

Frascati Manual
Name	Frascati Manual
Caption	OECD publishing standard for research and development statistics
Author	Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Country	France
Language	English
Subject	Research and development statistics
Genre	Statistical manual
Publisher	OECD Publishing
Pub date	1963 (first edition)

Frascati Manual is the internationally recognized standard for collecting and reporting research and development (R&D) statistics, developed to harmonize statistical classifications across national and supranational bodies. It provides detailed guidance used by agencies such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the World Bank, and the European Commission to ensure comparability of R&D data among member states. The Manual informs policy dialogues involving entities like the G7, the G20, the European Union institutions, and national statistical offices including Statistics Canada, Office for National Statistics (UK), and INSEE.

History and development

The Manual originated in 1963 through an initiative of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to respond to demands from ministries such as the French Ministry of Finance, the Italian Ministry of Education, and the United States Department of Commerce for consistent data following postwar reconstruction and the Cold War science race. Early contributors included researchers linked to institutions like the National Science Foundation, Academia dei Lincei, and the Royal Society, while international meetings involved delegations from Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, United States, and Italy. Subsequent editions were influenced by major reports from the World Bank Group, the United Nations, and the European Commission Directorate-General for Research. Revisions have responded to technological shifts exemplified by programs from NASA, CERN, and the European Space Agency, and to statistical innovations from bodies such as the International Monetary Fund and the International Labour Organization.

Purpose and scope

The Manual establishes definitions, concepts, and classification rules for measuring R&D inputs, outputs, and personnel to enable cross-country comparisons used by the OECD Council, the European Parliament, the US Congress, and national ministries including the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Ministry of Science and Technology (China). Its scope covers basic research, applied research, experimental development, and associated expenditures within sectors such as higher education institutes like Harvard University, corporate research labs like Bell Labs, government laboratories like Los Alamos National Laboratory, and non-profit research organizations like the Max Planck Society. It also guides statistics related to R&D performed by private firms including Siemens, Toyota, Pfizer, and technology firms such as Google and Microsoft.

Methodological guidelines

Methodological sections specify survey design and data collection practices adopted by national statistical offices including Statistics Sweden, ISTAT, and Australian Bureau of Statistics; they align with international frameworks like the System of National Accounts and standards from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. The Manual prescribes classifications for R&D personnel consistent with occupational taxonomies used by agencies like the International Labour Organization and measurement practices informed by large-scale studies from institutions such as the National Institutes of Health and the European Research Council. It addresses sampling strategies influenced by historical surveys like the Frascati Conference origins and aligns terminology used in policy instruments from Horizon 2020, Framework Programme 7, and successor programs administered by the European Commission.

Classification of R&D activities

The Manual defines three principal categories—basic research, applied research, and experimental development—with examples that map to activities at institutions such as MIT, CNRS, ETH Zurich, Riken, and CSIRO. It prescribes sectoral classifications for R&D performers: business enterprises (exemplified by General Electric), higher education (exemplified by University of Oxford), government (exemplified by Los Alamos National Laboratory), and private non-profit organizations (exemplified by the Wellcome Trust). The Manual’s cost components—personnel, current expenditure, capital expenditure—are used by analysts at think tanks such as the Brookings Institution and RAND Corporation and inform national budgetary reviews in ministries like the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation.

International adoption and revisions

Adoption expanded through collaborations among multilateral organizations including the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and regional bodies like the African Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Major revisions occurred in editions responding to changes in global research ecosystems driven by entities such as Biogen, Pfizer, Novartis, and consortiums like the Human Genome Project, and infrastructure developments at CERN and ITER. The Manual’s updates are debated in OECD working groups alongside representatives from Japan Science and Technology Agency, National Science Foundation (NSF), European Commission research directorates, and national academies such as the National Academy of Sciences.

Criticisms and limitations

Critics from academic and policy communities including scholars at Oxford University, Harvard University, Stanford University, and institutions like the Institute for Fiscal Studies argue that the Manual’s definitions can undercount interdisciplinary work emerging from collaborations among entities like IBM Research, Apple Inc., and start-ups spun out of Universität Heidelberg. Others point to challenges applying the Manual to digital research models used by Amazon Web Services and open science platforms exemplified by arXiv and bioRxiv, and to difficulties in measuring R&D in informal sectors across regions represented by the World Bank Group and the United Nations Development Programme. Debates involve policy-makers from forums such as the G20 Summit and advisory bodies like the European Research Area about whether new editions sufficiently address innovation metrics, knowledge spillovers, and valuation practices used in technology transfers involving Stanford University's incubation networks and Silicon Valley firms.

Category:Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Category:Research and development