Reader’s guide
This Review of Innovation Policy of Germany is split into six parts. With the exception of the first part – the Overall Assessment and Recommendations – each of these sections has a thematic focus relevant to the Recommendations of the Review, and is split into one or more chapters, with the Review comprising sixteen chapters in total. This Reader’s Guide gives an overview of the Review structure and contents.
The Review uses a number of patent- and investment-related indicators in the sections of the Review that involve benchmarking or an assessment of innovative performance. The strengths and weaknesses of these indicators will be familiar to many readers who are well acquainted with science, technology and innovation (STI) debates. However, for Readers that are not familiar with these indicators, an introduction to them can be found in Box 3.1 of Chapter 3.
Part 1 - The Overall Assessment and Recommendations
The first part of the Review contains one chapter: the Overall Assessment and Recommendations (OAR). This section contains the key findings of the Review and an overview of ten Recommendations that respond to these findings. The OAR condenses the information and messages of the other Review chapters, with the majority of the evidence that underpin these messages being found in the respective thematic chapters.
Part 2 – The innovation system in international context: performance, capabilities, and policy
The second part of the Review contains four chapters: Chapter two The Socio-economic context for innovation, Chapter three Benchmarking innovation performance, Chapter four The research base for innovation, and Chapter five Strategies and the policy mix for innovation.
Part 3 – Getting the conditions right for innovative entrepreneurship
The third part of the Review contains three chapters: Chapter six Framework conditions for innovation: regulation, infrastructure and skills, Chapter seven Financing innovation in Germany, and Chapter eight Setting standards: quality infrastructure and German innovation.
The chapters in this part of the book each introduce a recommendation. Chapter six introduces a recommendation on broadening and mainstreaming the use of agile policy tools to support innovative SMEs, as well as addressing bureaucratic hurdles that may lower SME contributions to German innovation. Chapter seven introduced a recommendation on promoting financial markets that are conducive to scaling high-impact and potentially breakthrough innovation. Chapter eight introduces a recommendation on digitalising and modernising German quality infrastructure, as well as using quality infrastructure as a strategic international instrument.
Part 4 – The international dimension of Germany’s innovation system
The fourth part of the Review contains one chapter: Chapter nine The international dimension of German innovation.
This chapter does not contain a recommendation, but does discuss a number of systemically important aspects of the German innovation system, including: trade and domestic innovation, global value chains and their role in the innovative private sector, and the importance of bottlenecks, energy and disruption for German STI
Part 5 – Innovation and the transformation of the German private sector
The fifth part of the Review introduces a further four chapters: Chapter ten Raising the contribution of the Mittelstand to innovation in the digital transition, Chapter eleven German business sector innovation for the green transition: challenges, performance and opportunities, Chapter twelve From incrementalism to breakthrough: new challenges, new approaches to innovation, and Chapter thirteen Technology and knowledge transfer for industry innovation and transformation.
The chapters in this part of the book introduce two recommendations. Chapter ten introduces a recommendation on improving data infrastructure and data access for private sector innovation. Chapter eleven introduces a recommendation on the use of public procurement as a demand-side instrument for innovation.
Part 6 – Steering the ship: Inclusive governance for transition
The fifth part of the Review contains three chapters: Chapter fourteen National STI Governance, EU leadership and international commitments, Chapter fifteen Agile and experimental policy for innovation, and Chapter sixteen More seats at the table: participation and inclusivity in German innovation.
The chapters in this part of the Review introduce three recommendations. These recommendations in many ways provide the overarching structure and vision for many of the other recommendations in this Review. Chapter fourteen introduces a recommendation on creating a whole-of-government vision for Germany in 2030 and 2050 that establishes the role of STI in achieving this. Chapter fifteen introduces a recommendation on the creation of a public-private laboratory for policy experimentation, acting as the institutional arm of the previously-mentioned recommendation. Chapter sixteen in turn introduces a recommendation on greater societal inclusion and participation in STI policy design and implementation.