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This paper analyses ‘mission-oriented innovation policies’ (MOIPs), a new type of systemic intervention that a growing number of countries has implemented in order to tackle mounting societal challenges. These policies aim to alleviate some of the most prevalent weaknesses within many national systems of innovation, notably the lack of holistic strategic orientation and policy co-ordination, and fragmented policy mixes. This paper leverages a dedicated analytical framework to systematically explore the challenges and opportunities that these policies present at initiative and country levels. In doing so, it provides a better understanding of the different ways in which governments design, fund and coordinate MOIPs, and contributes to broadening the range of options available to either improve or initiate this policy approach. This paper complements the MOIP Online Toolkit (https://stip.oecd.org/stip/moip), the OECD knowledge platform on MOIPs.

Despite potentially tremendous benefits, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) lag in the digital transformation. Emerging technologies, as diverse as they are, offer a range of applications for them to improve performance and overcome the size-related limitations they face in doing business. However, SMEs must be better prepared, and stakes are high. SMEs make the most of the industrial fabric in many countries and regions, they create jobs (most jobs sometimes) and are the cement of inclusive and sustainable societies. The SME digital gap has increased inequalities among people, places and firms, and there are concerns that the benefits of the digital transformation could accrue to early adopters, further broadening these inequalities. Enabling SME digitalisation has become a top policy priority in OECD countries and beyond. The report looks at recent trends in SME digital uptake, including in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. It focuses on issues related to digital security, online platforms, blockchain ecosystems, and artificial intelligence. The report identifies opportunities, risks of not going digital, and barriers to adoption. It looks to concrete policy action taken worldwide to speed the SME transformation and raises a series of considerations to advance the SME digital policy agenda.

Cloud computing infrastructures underpin an ever-increasing range of business tools, yet measures of cloud service adoption based on business ICT usage surveys give only a partial view of their diffusion. They do not reveal the intensity or volume of use by businesses, or the amount spent on cloud services. This paper assesses the extent to which insights on the use of commercial cloud services (i.e. services purchased from external providers) can be gleaned from economic and business statistics – in particular, from supply-use tables and the underlying business surveys. The paper examines the defining features of cloud services and their treatment in various statistical product classifications, before deriving estimates on the use of specific 'cloud-containing product classes' across businesses. A key finding is that efforts are needed to improve the availability of data that can be used to gain robust insights on business use of cloud services.

This paper provides an overview of the trends and differences in the prevalence of telework across EU countries, sectors and occupations before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Descriptive evidence shows that before the outbreak telework was more widespread in ICT- and knowledge-intensive sectors, and generally for high-skilled workers, although with big differences across EU countries. In fact, as shown in this paper, the prevalence of telework varied considerably across countries even within the same sector and occupational group. This suggests that, beyond differences in the industrial and occupational structure of employment, other factors, notably related to differences in organisation and management cultures, contribute to explaining the varying prevalence of telework in the EU. As a result of the outbreak-induced requirements to work from home, differences in telework uptake across countries, sectors and job profiles have likely narrowed in recent months. Yet, if past trends are a guide, the ability to further scale up telework in the future without hampering productivity may remain unevenly distributed in the EU.

In immediate responses to the COVID-19 crisis, science and innovation are playing essential roles in providing a better scientific understanding of the virus, as well as in the development of vaccines, treatments and diagnostics. Both the public and private sectors have poured billions of dollars into these efforts, accompanied by unprecedented levels of global cooperation. However, the economic crisis that is currently unfolding is expected to severely curtail research and innovation expenditures in firms, while debt-laden governments will face multiple, competing demands for financial support. These developments threaten to cause long-term damage to innovation systems at a time when science and innovation are most needed to deal with the climate emergency, meet the Sustainable Development Goals, and accelerate the digital transformation. Governments will need to take measures to protect their innovation systems as part of their stimulus and recovery packages, but should also use these as opportunities for reforms. In particular, science, technology and innovation (STI) policy should shift towards supporting a more ambitious agenda of system transformation that promotes a managed transition to more sustainable, equitable and resilient futures.

The digital environment has become an integral part of children’s everyday lives and interactions. The benefits can be tremendous, but there also risks. In 2011, the OECD adopted a Typology of Risks in an effort to broadly categorise those risks. Since then the digital environment has changed significantly, as risks have evolved in nature and new ones have emerged. This report informs the OECD’s broader work on children in the digital environment by examining these trends and presenting an updated Typology of Risks. The Typology provides a high-level overview of the risk landscape, and outlines four risk categories and their manifestations. The Typology also identifies and analyses risks that cut across these four risk categories, and that can therefore have wide-ranging effects on children’s lives.

This working paper introduces the key concepts and features of anticipatory innovation governance– i.e. the structures and mechanisms to allow and promote anticipatory innovation alongside other types of innovation in the public sector. This paper draws on academic literature and OECD work on a range of areas including public sector innovation, foresight, anticipatory governance and emerging technologies. The paper starts outlining an emerging framework to guide policy making in complex and uncertain contexts and sets out some questions for further research in the area of anticipatory innovation governance.

This report highlights a complex situation in which some forms of data localisation are seen as useful and largely uncontroversial, while others as a significant barrier to the digital economy. Contributing to the review of the implementation of the OECD Privacy Guidelines, the report emphasises the need to recognise the effect that data localisation can have on transborder data flows, but suggests that the conditions that data privacy laws traditionally impose do not necessarily amount to data localisation measures. Focusing on data localisation in the context of data privacy and the governance of globalised data flows, the report proposes a definition for data localisation, outlines a roadmap to ensure that data localisation does not impede transborder data flows, and makes recommendations to support such work. In particular, it emphasises the relevance of the accountability principle and the proportionality test articulated in the OECD Privacy Guidelines in evaluating data localisation measures.

Providing internationally comparable measures on prices of communication services has been a core task of the OECD through its Working Party on Communication Infrastructures and Services Policy (WPCISP) for decades. Currently, the majority of broadband services in OECD countries are based on bundled offers. This report develops OECD price baskets for bundled communication services to complement existing fixed and mobile price baskets. The baskets for bundled communication services range from dual play to quadruple play baskets, which include different combinations of fixed broadband, fixed voice, mobile voice and data, and pay-TV services. The report proposes 30 bundled baskets, accounting for different usage patterns and service elements. With increased convergence and the prevalence of communication bundles in the majority of OECD countries, this methodology sets a reference point for discussions on price baskets for bundled communication services in international fora.

Advanced materials hold significant potential to create better products and production processes. Yet realising their promise remains challenging: historically it has taken 15 to 20 years from discovery to deployment of new materials in products. Consequently, governments have been creating shared digital and physical infrastructures – 'collaborative platforms' – to pool and manage global data, drive the development of nascent industries, and create hubs of interdisciplinary research, development and training. Based on evidence from 12 case studies, this report characterises governance mechanisms of collaborative platforms for advanced materials such as terms of funding, access, and IP policy and explores how they can create different kinds of value. Technology convergence, the engagement of society and digitalisation are identified as key trends. The study describes conditions under which collaborative platforms can align and power value chains, foster standards, catalyse innovation ecosystems and build education, skills and social capital.