Analysis of the ERA state of plat in Member States and Associated Countries: Focus on priority areas

The European Research Area (ERA) communication ‘A reinforced European Research Area partnership for excellence and growth’ (1) defines a number of actions for Member States detailed in five priority areas, dealing with: (1) more effective national research systems; (2) optimal transnational cooperation and competition; (3) an open labour market for researchers; (4) gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research; and (5) optimal circulation, access to and transfer of scientific knowledge. For each Member State action the European Commission has set up a number of indicators and sub-indicators, which relate to key evaluation questions concerning the degree of development of actions in the Member States and associated countries. Against this background, the main objective of this study was to assist the European Commission in identifying and analysing the current baseline situation in each Member State and a limited number of associated countries for each action defined in the ERA communication. Concrete study tasks involved: revising and refining provided ERA progress indicators and sub-indicators proposed by the Commission concerning Member State actions in each of the five priority areas; collecting quantitative and qualitative data for each action at national level to estimate the indicators associated with each of these actions; analysing the state of play as regards the actions identified in the Commission communication in each Member State and a limited number of associated countries