Metrology & Innovation: bridging Science and the Entreprise

Metrology & Innovation: bridging Science and the Entreprise Franco Pavese INRIM*, Torino, Italy f.pavese@inrim.it *Until 31.12.2006, Istituto di Metrologia “G.Colonnetti” (IMGC)

SUMMARY • The overall goal of accelerating innovation and • competitiveness is today considered a must in modern • and advanced Societies. • It is pursued by generating knowledge necessary to ensure • a sustainable economic development, in order to improve • quality of life, while preserving the natural resources and the • environment. • Innovation does not anymore only involve today the • production of goods, which is the domain of industry, but • more and more the supply of qualified services to the • Society, by either public and private bodies. • For this reason, one is talking today more generally of the • enterprise, a term that includes both frames. F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Cont.ed • The product is not anymore only a manufactured object, but can also be an item delivered by one of those services: from drinkable water, to hospital analysis, to air quality, to traffic control, to birth planning and control, etc. • Innovation, especially product innovation, is mainly based • on new basic knowledge, i.e. on scientific knowledge that • must be able to bridge the gap between the laboratory and • the enterprise. • Knowledge finds its foundation on serendipity and on • theoretical intuition. • However, then it substantiates in applications that are • studied and developed by means of –often very sophisticated– • experimental work before eventually being made available to • the customers. F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Cont.ed Here measurement science comes and, here comes metrology: • a horizontal scientific-technical field that underpins almost all subject fields • in natural sciences and engineering, • based on a common methodology, characterised by the scientific treatment of measurement uncertainty, • and principles of traceability. F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Cont.ed In fact, not only scientific work, but also technical work at all levels of uncertainty require that the measurements taken during any kind of experiment, check, development or fabrication form a consistent set, in order to be consistently reproducedat different times and in different locations. • This involves, • from one hand, the highest staff qualification in the methods of measurement science to understand and practice the most sophisticated scientific developments; • on the other hand, the greatest confidence and authority in transferring under strict control these techniques, or in adapting them, to the broad • variety of technical levels required by the enterprise. F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

This bridging function is probably today, and more in the future, one of the most valuable assets of metrology. F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

The innovation process (an economic theory) Technological progress as a factor inherent to economic progress Factors enabling technological progress Investments in R&S and instrumental goods Human resources Public research infrastructures Increasing efficiency and efficacy of the investments in human resources, technology and knowledge F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

The roadmap from new need to market New need Society or market needs R&S Concept generat. Prototype realisation Marketing Production Market New technol State-of-the-art of technologies F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

INNOVATION AS A KNOWLEDGE-PROMOTED PROCESS Many interactions between actors, to integrate capacities and knowledge High risk level F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

P1 P2 P3 INNOVATION AS A PROCESS OF KNOW -HOW ACCUMULATION INTERNAL LEARNING EXTERNAL JOINT INTERNAL/EXTERNAL LEARNING R,D&D - Learning by developing Learning from/with suppliers Learning through reverse engineering Learning by testing Learning from/with lead users Learning by making – production learning Learning from acquisitions or new personnel Learning through horizontal partnerships Learning through customer- based prototype trials Learning from/with the S&T infrastructure Learning by failing Learning by using in vertically integrated companies Learning from the literature Learning through servicing/ fault finding Learning from competitors’actions Cross-project learning Competitors S&T infrastructure Leading edge customers Strategic suppliers Literature, including patents Strategic partnerships, marketing alliances, etc. Acquisitions and equity investments F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

NETWORKING BENEFITS Increase of the learning possibilities Risk and cost sharing Synergies among partners Benefits Higher capability in managing complexity Flexibility ed efficiency Speed Increase in comfort F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

“The nature of standards is that of public goods, whose provision must be established through collective (government) action” • The reason for this is that standards act as a mutual • reference point for all economic actors, and their maintenance • must be governed in a manner that allows for equitable access. • Were this not the case, for instance if standards were • privately held, the ‘owner’ of the standard could use it to • gain economic advantage at the expense of other actors. • The almost ubiquitous international response to the public • good nature of national measurement standards has been • the establishment of public NMIs. F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

1 – Metrology bridging action(infractructure function):facilitating trade function Metrology is born as an infrastructure, namely for legal purposes, to facilitate trade, internally and, externally, between countries (traceable transactions). This function has been recently prompted by the signature of the MRA, promoted by the BIPM. F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Which are the characteristics of trade and how metrology is facilitating it An economic transaction is a transfer of goods or services from one actor to another. To ensure that transactions result in efficient outcomes, governance mechanisms are instituted. The cost of transacting differs depending on both the nature of the transaction and on the way that it is organized. The ultimate goal is to minimize transaction costs. Some transactions are complex and must be governed by explicit contractsbetween formal organizations and made under centralized decision-making or hierarchies. For some transactions the information is costly. In this situation, the parts involved might not know vital details of the goods promised, e.g., about the quantities, involving measurement costs. F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

(cont.ed) If measurement costs are sufficiently high, they will prevent what could otherwise be mutually beneficial exchange. • In the general case, the presence of high measurement costs amongst a • large number of potential trading partners implies inefficiency, either • because: • measurement costs prohibit mutually beneficial exchange, or • there is a socially inefficient investment in measurement, • the result being that resources are not allocated to their highest economic • value (e.g., through problems related to asymmetric information). As a result, there is an incentive for agents to establish a mechanism whereby measurement costs are reduced collectively, as may be the case when a well-known, ubiquitous, measurement standard is instituted. Indeed, this is the economic function of the International System of Units (and associated standards such as certified reference materials or CRMs). F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Metrology is reducing trade barriers Thanks to aunique international public infrastructure that follow the purpose “measured once accepted everywhere” (MRA), by – disseminating measurements to users, directly (cmc database producing declarations accepted everywhere) – or, indirectly (international networks of accredited laboratories and MLA) – supporting legal metrology – supporting standardisation at International and National level – substantiating “quality” when measurements are involved (a key technical issue for quality systems) F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

This function is still evident in the type of activities perfomed today by the NMIs. Distribution of NMI activities United Kingdom Portugal F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

The interactions in the creation and diffusion of measurement technology F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Key features of a measurement (metrological) infrastructure It is a subset of the Measurement Sector F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Indicative estimates of internal costs of measurement to industry (M€ 2000) F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Percentage distribution of EU calibration laboratories by type F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Health: Selected Screening Tests and General Tests in the EU F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Food: EU Commission targets for BSE Testing F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Transportation: Measurement and testing in vehicle safety F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Energy: Verification and testing of Petrol Pumps in Europe F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Summary of Costs of Measurement Technologies in Europe (M€ 2000) F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Total and measurement related R&D Stock (% of Gross Domestic Product) F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Use of domestic measurement R&D stocks (% of final demand by component) F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Economic impact of foreign and domestic measurement knowledge (M€ 2000) F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Summary of the impact of measurement (% of Gross Domestic Product) F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Summary of Costs and Benefits of Measurement Technologies in Europe (k€ 2000) F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

2 – Metrology bridging action(research fonction): facilitating entreprise to incorporate innovation Metrology, when not directly developing innovation as a spinoff of its activities for improving the standards, needs to develop specific research activities for providing standards able to comply with the new measurement needs associated to innovative products and processes. The peculiarity of these developments is that they must ensure the integrity of the hierarchical measurement traceability chain, from the NMIs to the products or to the services provided by the entreprise. F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Cont.ed The quality of the research that the NMI has to perform should be compatible with the fact that the NMIs are at the top of the traceability chain. The consequence is that, when a National NMI has not the capability to reach that level, the corresponding National economic system becomes dependent on another Country. However, for the Countries of the European Union, the question arises about the degree to which the Countries, considered as European regions, can accept this dependency. This has been the subject matter of the EU Projects MERA and iMERA. F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

1° scenario F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

More research planned for the NMIs after the MRA effort • European Metrology Research Programme: ‘art.169’, about 250 M€ expected from the EU (50% contribution) • Now bringing to the first research action, the Project • iMERAplus: 21 M€ expected from the EU (33%) for 29 • participating Countries + IRMM on ‘SI and fundamental’, • ’Health’, ‘Length’, ‘Electromagnetism’, • and, to the new legal entity EURAMET, to drive • this process. F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Is it enough ? One out from the 4 models must be chosen, allowing the best balance between service (infrastructure) and research in NMIs, and: • The model should avoid ranking of the NMIs into a (small) group of ‘standards-holder NMIs’ and the rest of the NMIs not owning any independent assets. Each NMI should be responsible of the top-level realisation of standards for at least one, or more, base or derived quantities, at the world (and European) level. • NMIs should introduce the entreprise the concept that • metrology is not only certification & accreditation. • NMIs are a strategic partnership facilitating innovation • (user’s clubs) in the most direct way for trading and exporting, • thanks to guaranteed traceability – a feature exclusive of metrology. F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

… that is the bridge between science and the enteprise. Thank you for the attention References: MERA Workshops Geoffrey Williams: “The assessment of the economic role of measurements and testing in modern society”, EU Document 2002 Mark MacDonald et al. “Potential Economic Impact Of The CIPM Mutual Recognition Arrangement” 2002 F.Pavese, SPMet Congress, Madeira, October 2007

Metrology & Innovation: bridging Science and the Entreprise