Research project grants

Research project grants 2017

The following six research projects were awarded funding under the EPO Academic Research Programme in 2017:

Innovation and technological content of imports

Innovation in one nation benefits others as it diffuses. While there is strong evidence linking the adoption of foreign innovations to international trade, there is as yet no evidence on how trade generates links to foreign innovations which promote new local innovations. To bridge this knowledge gap we used a proprietary dataset linking trade in products to technology classes, providing a state-of-the-art measure of the innovation content of trade. Furthermore, we examined how this knowledge content and thus the encouragement of new innovations are impacted by intellectual property rights driven trade policies such as the WTO's TRIPS agreement.

Aim	Lead applicant	University	Thematic area
Measure how international technology diffusion encourages local exports	I. Bagayev	University College Dublin	Patents, trade and foreign direct investment
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		Innovation and technological content of imports (PDF, 609 KB)

Financing innovation in Europe

This research project establishes a link between financial constraints and corporate innovation in 15 European countries by analysing the impact of exogenous shocks on firms’ lending channels for their innovative activities. In order to infer causal relationships, the process of European financial integration in the early 2000s has been exploited as a quasi-natural experimental setup. The analysis used direct, quality-related measures of innovation based on patent information to assess the impact of financial constraints on innovative efficiency.

Aim	Lead applicant	University	Thematic area
Measure the impact of Financial Constraints on Corporate Innovation	D. Heller	Goethe University Frankfurt	SMEs
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		Financing innovation in Europe (PDF, 8 MB)

Innovation in climate change mitigation technologies and environmental regulation

The scientific evidence for human induced climate change and environmental degradation is unequivocal. Accelerating the development of climate change mitigation technologies (CCMTs) is a key challenge to temper the costs associated with climate change and air pollution. This project investigated the impact of environmental policies on innovation activities in general, and CCMTs in particular. The methodology used original data at the regional level on environmental measures implemented to decrease air pollution in the European Union and data on patents relating to CCMT (and non-CCMT). A quasi diff-in-diff setting and an instrumental variable approach have been used to identify the influence of a stricter environmental policy on different patterns of innovation activity.

Aim	Lead applicant	University	Thematic area
Measure the impact of environmental regulation on innovation in CCMT	J. Lochard	Université de Créteil	Climate change mitigation technologies
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		Innovation in climate change mitigation technologies and environmental regulation (PDF, 563 KB)

CAPPA – Career paths of patent attorneys

Patent attorneys have played an important role within the patent system for decades, but their role in sharing knowledge e.g. as they change jobs and interact with others has not previously been investigated in any detail. A comprehensive and current dataset about the activities and mobility of the patent attorneys has been missing. Based on preliminary work in the IP industry the project enabled the creation of a dataset of the career paths of all patent attorneys who have served as representatives before the EPO in the last ten years. This dataset, the EPAC, will be regularly updated and published as open data. It can be applied to identified career patterns of patent attorneys having a positive effect on the individual and firm success.

Aim	Lead applicant	University	Thematic area
Create a public dataset of individual European patent attorneys	L. Maicher	Friedrich Schiller University Jena	Patent services and intermediaries
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		CAPPA – Career paths of patent attorneys (PDF, 2.7 MB)

Insights from product-patent correspondence

This project has used data science tools to build a database that tracks innovations into the marketplace. Specifically, new software has been developed to harvest data on products from the web, which could be directly traced to identifiable European patents. These data can be employed to advance our understanding of patent valuation and the patent prosecution process.

Aim	Lead applicant	University	Thematic area
Create a public dataset matching PATSTAT with innovative products	G. de Rassenfosse	Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	Advanced use of PATSTAT
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		Insights from product-patent correspondence (PDF, 1.5 MB)

Knowledge spillovers from product and process inventions and their impact on firm performance

This research project aims at the large-scale categorisation of ‘technological fields’ to distinguish between process inventions and product inventions. Text searching methods have been applied to validate the resulting classifications, which will be made publicly available. The patent records have been coded to enable the identification and analysis of technological life-cycles following the introduction of product and process inventions. A second, analytical part of the project characterises different forms of spillovers related to products and processes and analyses their impacts on: i) innovation performance; ii) research or productivity; and iii) entry/exit in technological fields.

Aim	Lead applicant	University	Thematic area
Measure the impact of information disclosure from product versus process inventions	M. Wörter	ETH Zurich	Advanced use of PATSTAT
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		Knowledge spillovers from product and process inventions and their impact on firm performance (PDF, 4 MB)