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OECD's journal on science, technology and industry issues.  This issue's articles focus on biotechnology.

This issue of the STI Review focuses on the Global Information Society (GIS) and has articles on ICT diffusion and its economic impact, policy considerations related to the internet, copyright, technology and employment, universal service, and GIS infrastructure.

Despite the regional and international discipline which has been established, industrial subsidies continue to play an important role in the policy mix of OECD governments. In an era of budgetary constraints and globalisation, their reduction and phasing-out remains a policy challenge in almost all OECD countries.

This special issue of the STI Review presents, from the perspective of national governments, the Commission of the European Communities, the WTO and the OECD, the policy approaches adopted to limit the trade-distorting potential of subsidies and to tackle public spending on industrial support programmes in the light of budget consolidation.

Technological change has enormous potential: it can help improve economy-wide productivity and stimulate growth and job creation. To fulfil this potential, governments need to make technology and innovation policies an integral part of overall economic policy, while intensifying their search for "best practices". This issue of the STI Review deals with these questions. It discusses "market" and "systemic" failure approaches and examines how economic theory can provide guidance in the quest for best practices. It presents a significant range of emerging policy adjustments in certain countries (Canada, the United States, Finland) and organisations and gives a resolutely new insight into technology and innovation policy.

This special issue of the STI Review focuses on Public-Private Partnerships in Science and Technology.

This issue of the STI Review examines the development of ICT infrastructure in the OECD area, reveals how this powerful tool supports the work of scientists and highlights the role of government in realising the potential of ICT for science. It is based on the Global Research Village II Conference, held in Sintra, Portugal on 17-18 September 1998 and organised jointly by the Portuguese Ministry for Science and Technology and the OECD.

This special issue of STI Review focuses on technology and sustainable development.

The papers in this volume attempt to bring the facts about spin-offs from public research to light. Universities and research institutions are more entrepreneurial than ever before, and spin-offs represent the success of their new commercial orientation. But hopes about the importance of new firm generation from cutting-edge research, should be informed by better data on new firm creation and their economic impacts. The papers in this volume explore the steady rise of research-based spin-offs across the OECD, and rely on recent data to explain the factors of success, and to formulate better institutional practices and national policies.

OECD's journal on science, technology and industry issues.  This issue includes articles on science and technology indicators.

The idea of organising a seminar came from a presentation by a Swedish representative of the "Vision Zero" programme. The basic idea of "Vision Zero" is that no person should be killed or seriously and permanently impaired in a road traffic accident. At the invitation of the Czech authorities, the seminar was held in March 2002 in Prague. Many governmental and non-governmental organisations responsible for road safety policies and work participated in the event.

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) remain vulnerable to being used as conduits for political finance, patronage, and personal or related-party enrichment. Lingering weaknesses in corporate governance and ownership arrangements can expose SOEs to such exploitation and undermine SOE efforts to uphold integrity. This report highlights these weaknesses and provides state owners with a better understanding of which activities are effective in insulating SOEs from undue influence. It also takes stock of how OECD member and participating countries are implementing relevant provisions of the OECD Guidelines on Anti-Corruption and Integrity in SOEs, serving as the first report on the implementation of the Guidelines since their adoption in 2019.

This report points to the growing number of labor migrants in Asia and examines the policy question of how to best safeguard their rights. Governments and stakeholders in both origin and destination countries have largely recognized their mutual interest in safeguarding labor migrants. Multilateral frameworks have also put this in focus, with safe and orderly migration seen as important. This report examines some of the key policy questions in protecting migrant workers, including how to promote fair recruitment of less skilled workers, and how to address vulnerable groups such as irregular migrants and domestic workers. The four chapters in this report draw on issues raised and discussed during the Sixth Roundtable on Labor Migration in Asia: Safeguarding Labor Migrants from Home to Workplace that was held in Tokyo from 3 to 5 February 2016. The event brought together regional experts and policy makers and was co-organized by the Asian Development Bank Institute, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the International Labour Organization. The report’s introductory chapter reviews recent regional migration trends. Two statistical annexes provide an overview of migration flows within Asia and between Asia and other regions.

This document aims to support cities in setting road safety targets and to monitor progress in improving urban road safety. Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists account for nearly 80% of urban traffic fatalities. Cities should thus intensify efforts to improve the safety of vulnerable road users. This document presents traffic safety indicators for different road user groups collected in 31 cities to facilitate the evaluation, monitoring and benchmarking of road safety outcomes. It places a particular attention on measuring the risk of fatality per unit distance travelled.

Volume I of this series compiles the science-based consensus documents of the OECD Task Force for the Safety of Novel Foods and Feeds from 2002 to 2008. They contain information for use during the regulatory assessment of food/feed products of modern biotechnology, i.e. developed from transgenic crops. Relevant information includes compositional considerations (nutrients, anti-nutrients, toxicants, allergens), use of the plant species as food/feed, key products and components suggested for analysis of new varieties for food use and for feed use, and other elements. These documents should be of value to applicants for commercial uses of novel foods and feeds, regulators and risk assessors in national authorities for their comparative approach, as well as the wider scientific community.

Volume II of this series compiles the science-based consensus documents of the OECD Task Force for the Safety of Novel Foods and Feeds from 2009 to 2014. They contain information for use during the regulatory assessment of food/feed products of modern biotechnology, i.e. developed from transgenic crops. Relevant information includes compositional considerations (nutrients, anti-nutrients, toxicants, allergens), use of the plant species as food/feed, key products and components suggested for analysis of new varieties for food use and for feed use, and other elements. These documents should be of value to applicants for commercial uses of novel foods and feeds, regulators and risk assessors in national authorities for their comparative approach, as well as the wider scientific community.

This volume compiles the consensus documents developed by the OECD Working Group for the Safety of Novel Foods and Feeds from 2015 to 2019. It deals with the composition of common bean, rice, cowpea and apple, four important crops for agriculture and food consumption worldwide. The science-based information collated here is intended for use during the regulatory assessment of food/feed products derived from modern biotechnology, i.e. issued from transgenic plants. Compositional considerations are provided for each species, including tables detailing the key nutrients, anti-nutrients, possible toxicants, allergens and other metabolites contained in the products. This essential information and solid data can be used in the comparative approach as part of the novel food/feed safety assessment. It should be of value to crop breeders and applicants for commercial uses of novel foods and feeds, to regulators and risk assessors in national authorities, as well as the wider scientific community. More information can be found at BioTrack Online.

Volume 10 of the Series contains the consensus document on the “Environmental Considerations for Risk/Safety Assessment for the Release of Transgenic Plants” developed by the OECD Working Party on the Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology. Transgenic plant varieties are subject to official risk/safety assessment, science-based and case-by-case, before their potential release into the environment. The document contains general information on environmental risk/safety assessment, its key concepts, structure and planning. Annexes describe seven examples of environmental considerations routinely examined by assessors and taken from experience gained during such assessment: Invasiveness and weediness; Vertical gene flow; Organisms (animals); Soil functions; Plant health; Crop management practices; and Biodiversity (protected species and habitats/ecosystems). The purpose of this document is not to elaborate new terminology or to describe how to undertake an actual risk/safety assessment, but rather to outline an approach and provide illustrative examples for helping assessors in planning and structuring an environmental risk/safety assessment. This document should be of interest to regulators and safety assessors, as well as to plant breeders and the wider scientific community. More information, including other tools for environmental risk/safety assessment such as OECD consensus documents on the biology of crop species, are found at BioTrack Online.

This series represents a compilation of the biosafety consensus documents developed by the OECD Working Group on Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology over the periods 2011-12 (Volume 5) and 2013-15 (Volume 6). Volumes 5 and 6 describe the biology, centres of origin, genetics, hybridisation, production and use, and ecology elements of several crops (sugarcane, cassava, sorghum, common bean, cucurbits) and trees (eucalyptus species). They also provide considerations on pathogenicity factors in assessing the potential adverse health effects of bacteria, and the low level presence of transgenic plants in seed and grain commodities.
The consensus documents contain information for use during the regulatory assessment of products of modern biotechnology, i.e. transgenic organisms (plants, animals, micro-organisms), when intended for release in the environment. As such, it should be of value to applicants for use of genetically-engineered organisms in agriculture mainly, to regulators and risk assessors in national authorities for their biosafety assessments, as well as the wider scientific community. More information on this OECD programme is found at BioTrack online (www.oecd.org/biotrack).