The impact of public funding on science valorisation: an analysis of the ERC Proof-of-Concept Programme
利用欧洲研究理事会概念验证项目的数据，通过工具变量法比较获资助与未获资助项目的转化成果，发现公共资助有效促进了科学发现的早期商业化应用。
Governments and public agencies are increasingly keen to support the translation of scientific discoveries into commercial and societal applications through science valorisation funding, as a way to enhance progress and inclusive growth. In this paper, we use grant-level data from the European Research Council Proof-of-Concept (PoC) programme, in order to assess the impact of public funding on a broad set of science valorisation outcomes, including licensing, spinoff formation, R&D collaborations, consulting and access to follow-on funding. We employ an instrumental variable approach to compare the valorisation outcomes of projects that obtained an ERC PoC grant to a group of projects that applied to the PoC scheme but were not funded. We find that the programme was effective in fostering the early valorisation of scientific discoveries by all measures of success that we employed. Overall, thus, our findings speak in favour of this type of policy instrument as a catalyst to accelerate the transition of scientific breakthroughs towards practical applications.