The European Monitor of Industrial Ecosystems is underpinned by a given set of indicators and data calculations based on a conceptual framework that highlights technology development and adoption, investments and funding, skills, regulatory framework conditions and policy drivers, sustainable competitiveness, environmental performance, market formation, and social acceptance, as fundamental building blocks and enablers of the green and digital transition.
In order to provide data on these different dimensions, the European Monitor of Industrial Ecosystems (EMI) project has produced a list of specific indicators per dimension, for which it uses a mix of traditional and novel sources of data:
- To analyse technology generation, the project relies on patent and tech startup data, whereas for technology adoption, the findings are drawn from surveys and big data
- To analyse investments and funding, private equity, venture capital investments, and Foreign Direct Investments serve to provide an overview of the state-of-play of private funding for the green and digital transition, whereas procurement and CORDA data are used to analyse public investments in these fields
- The skills dimension is examined through LinkedIn data to assess the supply of green and digital skills and through Cedefop data to assess the demand of these skills
- Finally, sustainable competitiveness hinges on industrial performance, which is assessed through production data retrieved from Prodcom, and on environmental performance, which is analysed by looking into GHG emissions, materials extraction, water consumption, among other elements, through Exiobase data
The literary and policy basis of the EMI’s conceptual framework and a thorough description of each indicator, as well as a complete overview of codes used per type of dataset, can all be found in its methodological report, which can be downloaded below.