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This paper concludes the project 'Support to Improve Effectiveness of Lithuania’s Innovation Policy' which summarises the findings, policy options and recommended actions. It aimed at providing support to efforts of the Government of Lithuania to better deliver existing policies, and develop and implement appropriate new policies, instruments and institutions in selected areas of science, technology and innovation (STI) policy. The report takes stock of recent policy actions taken since the 'OECD Review of Innovation Policy: Lithuania 2016'. Drawing on international good practices it explores the scope for improvement in selected areas of STI policy: a) consolidation of innovation agencies and enhancing Lithuania’s STI Council, b) public procurement of innovation , c) mission-oriented innovation policies, and d) industry 4.0 and artificial intelligence. The project has been aligned with ongoing Lithuanian reform processes, some of which are reflected in the ‘New Generation Lithuania’ plan related to the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility.

As data have become a social and economic resource, including for value creation, decision-making, innovation and production, policy makers are facing a number of challenges. Among the most important issues – but also one that is particularly complex – is how to measure the economic value of data to provide a solid evidence base for policymaking. This Going Digital Toolkit note brings clarity about what is meant by the term 'data' in the context of efforts to conceptualise and measure the value of data from a statistical perspective. The note also highlights why estimating the value of data is increasingly important, identifies the conceptual and practical measurement challenges faced, and catalogues various innovative initiatives underway across countries in the context of the forthcoming revision of the System of National Accounts and beyond.

Data portability has become an essential tool for enhancing access to and sharing of data across digital services and platforms. This report explores to what extent data portability can empower users (natural and legal persons) to play a more active role in the re-use of their data across digital services and platforms. It also examines how data portability can help increase interoperability and data flows and thus enhance competition and innovation by reducing switching costs and lock-in effects.

Reliable and high-quality connectivity is fundamental for the digital transformation. Furthermore, the COVID-19 health emergency has shown that access to high-quality broadband services at affordable prices, across different territories is essential to ensure that economic and social activities can continue in an increasingly remote manner. However, important disparities in terms of connectivity persist in G20 countries and especially within countries between different types of regions. Overcoming the territorial divide is essential to ensure that no region and its inhabitants are left behind, regardless of where they live. This report offers a roadmap to policy makers to reduce the digital divides experienced by people living in different places within countries. While this is a key policy goal, the reduction of regional disparities needs to be accompanied with sufficiently high levels of broadband speeds across regions for people to be able to fully benefit from the economic opportunities and services brought about by digitalization.

Connectivity is an essential pillar of ensuring an inclusive digital transformation. The COVID-19 health emergency has further accentuated the awareness of how the quality, capability and resilience of broadband networks are becoming even more critical to ensure an inclusive society as more and more activities, such as work and education, are conducted in a remote manner. Therefore, policies aiming to expand connectivity and increase its quality are of paramount importance. Furthermore, analysing the performance of networks is crucial to inform policy makers and regulators to identify quality gaps and design the right policies and regulation towards closing those gaps. This report focuses on the state of broadband speed quality across the G20 and how to upgrade the speeds of networks further to spur economic recovery. It identifies existing gaps and puts forward policies and regulation towards extending high-quality networks and upgrading the quality of networks.

This paper aims to help policy makers understand and improve the conditions for firms to thrive in an increasingly digital economy where data has become an important resource for innovation. The paper: 1) analyses trends in the adoption of information and communication technologies and activities that enable firms to collect, store and use data, including big data analysis (BDA); 2) provides new evidence from micro-econometric analysis of firms’ BDA and innovation in products, processes, marketing and organisation, considering different types of data used for BDA; 3) examines business models of firms that successfully innovate with data; and 4) discusses policies that can help improve the conditions for all firms to go digital and tap into the potential of data for innovation.

The COVID-19 crisis has triggered a major shift towards telework and virtual interactions. This paper uses information on job postings from the online job site Indeed to analyse developments in the adoption of telework across 20 countries. It finds, first, that the incidence of advertised telework almost tripled during the pandemic, albeit with large differences both across sectors and across countries. Second, cross-country differences are to a notable extent explained by differences in the extent to which governments restricted mobility during the pandemic. However, while the tightening of restrictions substantially raises advertised telework, their easing only modestly reverses the increase. Third, digital preparedness plays an important role in mediating the response of advertised telework to changes in restrictions. The tightening of restrictions has particularly large effects in sectors that are better prepared to adopt digital business models, while their easing has almost no effect in countries with high-quality digital infrastructure. Overall, these results suggest that telework is here to stay, especially in countries with high levels of digital preparedness. Public policies will need to adapt to reap the potential benefits for productivity and worker well-being.

Motivated by the sudden adoption of telework in the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic, the Global Forum on Productivity (GFP) undertook an online survey among managers and workers in 25 countries about their experience and expectations, with a particular focus on productivity and well-being. This paper presents analysis and results from this endeavour. It finds that managers and workers had an overall positive assessment from teleworking both for firm performance and for individual well-being, and wish to increase substantially the share of regular teleworkers from pre-crisis levels. Respondents, on average, find that the ideal amount of telework is around 2-3 days per week, in line with other recent evidence and with the idea that the benefits (e.g., less commuting, fewer distractions) and costs (e.g., impaired communication and knowledge flows) need to be balanced at an intermediate level of telework intensity. To meet the challenges of this 'hybrid' working mode, as the survey finds, further changes from management are needed, such as the co-ordination of schedules to encourage a sufficient degree of in-person interaction, and further investment in ICT tools and skills as well as more soft skills to master online communication.

This study provides an in-depth assessment of Spain’s innovation system and the current state of knowledge transfer and collaboration. It identifies five priority areas for reform and long-term investment that should provide the basis of a new Roadmap. These include granting greater operational autonomy to universities and public research organisations in return for accountability on outcomes, putting in place a better integrated system of incentives that takes both individuals and organisations into account, and ensuring sustained investment in core capabilities to connect science and business. To put these reforms in motion and sustain them over time, a new type of covenant between science and society is needed in Spain today. This should be based on a ‘new deal’ between actors in the science and innovation system and society at large, committing to place the pursuit of concrete social benefits in return for more stable and predictable support.

Technological developments are one of the major forces behind the need for retraining, but they can also be part of the solution. In particular, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to increase training participation, including among currently underrepresented groups, by lowering some of the barriers to training that people experience and by increasing motivation to train. Moreover, certain AI solutions for training may improve the alignment of training to labour market needs, and reduce bias and discrimination in the workplace. In order to realise the benefits of AI for training and ensure that it yields benefits for all, it will be necessary to address potential drawbacks in terms of changing skills requirements, inequalities in access to data, technology and infrastructure and important ethical issues. Finally, even when these drawbacks can be addressed, the introduction and expansion of AI tools for training is constrained by the supply of AI skills in the workforce and the availability of scientific evidence regarding the benefits of AI tools for training and whether they are cost-effective.