The project aims at providing EU policy-makers, academia, and other institutional and economic actors with robust empirical scientific-sound evidence and analysis on the contribution of private-sector R&D to sustainable competitiveness and "prosperity" in the EU.
The Economics of Industrial Research & Innovation (IRI) is a scientific project carried out within the Directorate B: Growth and Innovation, one of the seven scientific institutes of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC).
Economics of Industrial Research and Innovation is a team running the IIC – Industrial Innovation and Competitiveness science-to-policy project, carried out within the Directorate B - Fair & Sustainable Economy, at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC).
The project aims at providing EU policymakers, academia, and other institutional and economic actors with robust empirical scientific evidence and analysis on the:
The project provides support to the JRC Work Programme thematic portfolios 10 - Drivers of competitiveness, 11 - Strategic Technologies, and 6 - Transport and mobility. Sources of information include: data from statistical offices and the Commission (national, Eurostat, COR&DIP, DGTES, OECD, EPO, etc.), commercial datasets on companies' annual financial reports, surveys (access to CIS, and other surveys), experts opinions, published reports and scientific papers, and trade and patenting activity datasets (UN COMTRADE and PATSTAT).
The research methodologies are based on quantitative economic and financial analyses using statistics, econometrics, modelling, input-output matrices, data panels, complex networks methods and machine learning algorithms. Qualitative analysis as such expert-panels complements quantitative approaches.
The outputs of the project lead to the elaboration of medium and long-term evidence-based policy options to support the development and implementation of industrial EU policies that considers investment in knowledge and innovation a main driver for achieving a smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth. Besides, the project provides a platform for the long-term collection, monitoring, analysis, and reporting of information on private-sector research and innovation activities in the EU, with particular emphasis on the relation between research, innovation, and economic and sustainability performance. An important element in this context is our activity in organising and hosting the biennial CONCORDi conferences at the JRC Seville.
Policy context
Research and Innovation (R&I) is the main driver of productivity, growth and living standards, as well as resilience. It is key for transformation, to develop a circular economy, to achieve carbon-neutrality, and the basis for a fair society. However, EU R&I investments fall persistently short of their aspirations and still compare poorly to global competitors (2.2% of GDP, well below the 3% objective).
“The future of European competitiveness” also known as the Draghi report, published in September 2024 and at the heart of the 2024-2029 mandate of Commission’s President Von der Leyen, urges EU policy measures to regain global competitiveness by closing the gaps to our competitors, requiring annual investment into the new competitiveness strategy of EUR 750-800 billion. Based on this, the February 2025 Competitiveness Compass places innovation and removing barriers at the heart of European renewal. It sets out a roadmap for European policies, in parallel to expected long-term budgetary decisions for the next EU Multiannual Framework.
Closing the investment gaps requires substantial contributions from the private sector. In the EU, private Research & Development (R&D) spending accounts for less than 60% of the overall R&D spending, lagging behind global peers like the US and China. At the same time, the EU is caught in the mid-tech trap. Globally, industry has been undergoing a profound structural transformation due to technological, business and social innovation, also exacerbated by geopolitical tensions and AI-related structural changes. Other economies have been highly successful in creating and growing firms in high R&D intensity sectors, such as ICT and health. Nonetheless, by designing proper policies, the EU has the potential to boost its productivity by exploiting its existing capabilities to innovate and improve performances, leading to an enhanced investment environment. Especially relevant is increasing business dynamics and leveraging private investment into innovation uptake and scaling up deep tech innovations.
The current relaunch of the EU industrial policy emphasizes the epochal transformation of industry, society and policies that should be dealt with up to 2030 and beyond. Such transformations can be enabled by various aspects of innovation and include novel policies and instruments
TEAM LEADER
Alexander Tübke was appointed Team Leader of the Industrial Research and Innovation team in December 2016. He studied Industrial Engineering at the Universities of Karlsruhe (Germany), Lausanne (Switzerland) and Seville (Spain) and holds a European Doctorate of Industrial Engineering of the University of Seville (Spain).
Alexander has working experience in several multinational companies in the fields of marketing and audit. He joined the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in 1999. Since then, he was engaged in research projects in the area of Innovation & Competitiveness, Technology Assessment, and Competitive Sustainability.
TEAM MEMBER
Francesco Rentocchini is Economic Analyst at the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) and Associate Professor in Business Economics and Innovation at the Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at the University of Milan (IT). He was previously Associate Professor in Strategy and Innovation at the University of Southampton (UK).
He has an established research record in innovation studies. His main area of research relates to bi-directional flows between the generation of knowledge know-how and the development of technological innovation. His research interests include innovation in high-tech industries, environmental economics, growth and survival of start-ups and SMEs and university-industry collaborations.
His articles have appeared, among the others, in Research Policy, Industrial and Corporate Change and International Journal of Industrial Organization. He was Associate Editor for the European Management Review (2016-2020) and has been guest editor for Industry and Innovation and Small Business Economics.
He contributed to several research projects, both at national and international level, and enjoyed research periods abroad in various internationally recognised research centres (e.g. Manchester Institute of Innovation Research in the UK, UNU-MERIT research centre in the Netherlands, INGENIO in Spain).
Francesco holds a doctoral degree from the University of Bologna.
Dario joined the JRC in November 2019. Previously, between 2017 and 2019, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University (Growth Lab, Center for International Development). Before his PhD in Economic Geography at Utrecht University (2013-2017), he worked as a researcher in urban and regional economics at the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (2009-2012). His research spans across several topics including technological change, structural transformation, migration and technology diffusion, cities and regions, economic complexity, economic resilience, human capital and skills.
Elisabeth Nindl contributes to the annual EU R&D Survey and R&D Scoreboard. Before joining the JRC in April 2022, she gained experience in the monitoring and evaluation of public funding programmes for R&D in the business sector, as well as in science funding and science policy. In her work, she employed quantitative and qualitative methods to deliver tailored policy advice for various public clients. Elisabeth holds a PhD in economics obtained at the University of Innsbruck in 2014.
Lorenzo joined the territorial Development Unit in July 2020. He holds a PhD in Economics from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (Pisa, Italy). His main research interests are in the area of innovation, with a focus patent data analysis and on the role that complexity plays in shaping economic systems. Before joining the JRC, he worked as a researcher for the Italian National Research Council and the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies.
Péter Fákó has joined the JRC in 2015 and the high growth enterprise team in 2019. He contributes to the several deliverables of the team (Industrial scoreboard, high growth enterprises factsheets, venture capital analysis) through data analysis. Before joining the team, he gained experience in various quantitative analyses, such as the Chinese R&I system, Marie Curie grants (bibliometric analysis), University Multirank (methodology analysis), R&I indicators development, etc.
Before becoming an EU official (2009) he worked for seven years in financial advisory (corporate finance analysis) in two multinational consulting companies. He has a Master’s degree (MA in Economics) from the Central European University, Budapest.
07 Apr 2026 | 15 May 2026
