CHAPTER 4 THE APULIAN INNOVATION OVERVIEW: A KNOWLEDGE TOOL FOR BETTER INFORMED PUBLIC DECISIONS Annamaria Fiore Regional Technology and Innovation Agency, a.fiore@arti.puglia.it
“Policy makers often decide in uncertain conditions where results are rarely known and can be reliably evaluated”. The speech by the former President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, in 2019, confirms the necessity for policy makers to base their decisions on knowledge and verification of the facts in order to reduce intrinsic uncertainty. On the basis of these considerations about the necessity of an evidence-based approach for policy making, the Regional Strategic Agency for Technology and Innovation of Apulia Region intended to contribute in reducing part of this uncertainty providing a versatile and intuitive tool for the basic knowledge of the socio-economic system and innovation in Apulia (South Italy). The Apulian Innovation Overview (AIO) is a web-based informative tool aimed at the systematic valorisation of the information resulting from the institutional activity of survey, monitoring, elaboration and analysis of the Regional Innovative System carried out by the Regional Agency for Technology and Innovation (ARTI). The AIO has a flexible structure: it is both dynamic, since it is continuously updated, and integrated, since it allows over time to add further indicators elaborated on information taken from different sources belonging to other sectors of the regional administration, as the experience of Open Data has shown. For its implementation, an initial step-by-step approach was adopted. The tool can now be accessed through the Agency’s portal via various navigation modes and leads to pages dedicated to individual indicators, including detailed descriptions; comparative tables with time and other territorial breakdowns (usually, Italy and South); possible other disaggregation (by type, sector, etc.); direct connection to the data source; graph and other functionalities. The AIO allows analysts to study the degree and dynamics of specialization of the Apulian production and research system, with particular regard to innovative phenomena that affect it, in order to redefine and implement the new regional interventions inspired by the principles of the Smart Specialization Strategy. ΑΒSTRACT
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