SDG 9.3 Knowledge and innovation
Knowledge is essential: for the economy on the one hand, and to develop solutions to the urgent issues facing humanity on the other. This third dashboard for SDG 9 focuses on public and private sector investment in knowledge, technological developments, and access to ICT and the internet.
Summary of results
Dashboard and indicators
SDG 9.3 Knowledge and innovation
Further reading
Summary of results
- Trends for five of the twelve indicators are moving in the direction of increasing well-being. Only one indicator is trending towards decreasing well-being, but it is an important one: patent applications.
- From an international perspective, the Netherlands is only trailing in terms of gross fixed capital formation in tangible assets.
- Gross fixed capital formation in tangible assets, R&D expenditure (total as well the share of companies spending on R&D) and number of hours worked in R&D are all trending upwards. The number of scientific publications is also rising.
- The trend in the number of PCT patent applications per million inhabitants has turned from neutral to downward (red).
- Nearly everyone in the Netherlands has a broadband internet connection and access to the internet; the Netherlands leads the EU on both. These indicators have now been removed from the dashboard.
Dashboard and indicators
This broad SDG has three main components: infrastructure and mobility, industry and sustainable business, and knowledge and innovation. This third dashboard for SDG 9 focuses on knowledge, which is essential for improving economic performance and to find solutions to the most urgent issues facing the world today. Knowledge can be converted into new technologies and processes, which in turn can be used to improve products and production processes and make them more sustainable. But knowledge also has sociocultural and intrinsic value. In this respect it is important that both the government and the private sector invest in knowledge accumulation, to develop ICT and other technology further, and increase the stock of knowledge capital. Another aspect is access to knowledge, where the internet plays an essential role.
With the exception of the trend in patent applications, the picture for this dashboard is mostly positive. The positions in the EU rankings are also generally favourable. The Netherlands is only trailing on one indicator: gross fixed capital formation in tangible assets.
SDG 9 Industry, innovation and infrastructure: knowledge and innovation Resources and opportunities
2.3%7th0.7%10th1.5%8th17.3%13th3.7%5th4.36thUse
3,8586th2355th40%17thOutcomes
€ 1496th€ 10.902ndSubjective assessment
7.4
Resources and opportunities
Use
Outcomes
Subjective assessment
Resources and opportunities include money, manpower and infrastructure to develop, share and apply knowledge and innovation. The Dutch lead the European rankings in terms of broadband internet connections and internet access: in 2021 almost the entire population aged 12 and over had these facilities. These two indicators have now been removed from the dashboard.
Four of the six indicators are moving towards a higher level of well-being. Fixed capital formation in tangible fixed assets – mainly investment in machinery and equipment – amounted to 17.3 percent of GDP in 2022. The trend is rising, but the figure is low compared with other EU countries (13th out of 15 countries measured). The number of hours worked in research and development (R&D) also shows an upward trend. In 2021, Dutch businesses, institutions and higher education spent nearly 19.3 billion euros on in-house and outsourced R&D. This resulted in an R&D intensity (R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP) of 2.3 percent. Private and public spending on R&D amounted to 1.5 and 0.7 percent of GDP respectively. Total R&D expenditure is trending upwards, pulled up by the rising trend in the private share of this spending; the trend is neutral for public R&D spending. The Netherlands was in the middle group of the EU for public and private R&D spending separately, but among the EU leaders for total R&D expenditure.
Use concerns produced knowledge, implemented innovation and knowledge networks. The trend in the number of scientific publications (articles, conference papers, notes, letters and reviews as referenced in Elsevier’s Scopus database) is rising. In 2021, 733 more items per million inhabitants were published than in 2015, the start of the trend period. The number of PCT patent applications per million inhabitants is decreasing, however, and the trend for 2015-2022 has turned from neutral to red. Numbers of scientific publications and patents per million inhabitants are both relatively high: the Netherlands is in the top groups of the European rankings.
Outcomes concern the extent to which new technology and knowledge are embedded in capital goods. The stock of capital goods (machinery, tools and other means of production) is calculated per hour worked. Both the stock of physical capital and that of knowledge capital show neutral trends. For knowledge capital, the Netherlands is in the top group of the EU (comparison was possible with eleven other EU countries in 2021).
Subjective assessment relates to trust in science and innovation. Trust in science is measured every three years by Rathenau Institute, and expressed on a scale from 1 (no trust whatsoever) to 10 (complete trust). Few data are available and the intervals between survey dates are substantial. Average trust in science was 7.4 in 2021. The 2021 survey also included questions on the impact of coronavirus on people’s trust in science. Almost a quarter of respondents said they had more faith in science, particularly because of the rapid development of the coronavirus vaccines. For 16 percent, the rapid development of these vaccines had precisely the opposite effect: it reduced their level of trust in science.