Measuring the AI content of government-funded R&D projects
A proof of concept for the OECD Fundstat initiative
This report presents the results of a proof of concept for a new analytical infrastructure
(“Fundstat”) for analysing government funding of R&D at the project level, exploiting
the wealth of text-based information about funded projects. Reflecting the growth
in popularity of artificial intelligence (AI) and the OECD Council Recommendation
on AI’s emphasis on R&D investment, the report focuses on analysing government investments
into AI-related R&D. Using text mining tools, it documents the creation of a list
of key terms used to identify AI-related R&D projects contained in 13 funding databases
from eight OECD countries and the EU, provides estimates for the total number and
volume of government R&D funding, and characterises their AI funding portfolio. The
methods and findings developed in this study also serve as a prototype for a new distributed
mechanism capable of measuring and analysing government R&D support across key OECD
priority areas and topics.
Published on June 28, 2021
In series:OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papersview more titles