Official website of the President of Russia

I. Foreword

1.1 Innovation refers to the embodiment of an idea in a technology, product, or process that is new and creates value. An innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), or process which derives from creative ideas, technological progress, a new marketing method or a new organizational method in business practices, workplace organization or external relations.[1] Innovation covers a wide range of domains with science and technology innovation as the core.

1.2 We, the G20 members, agree that innovation is one of the key driving forces of global sustainable development, playing a fundamental role in promoting economic growth, supporting job creation, entrepreneurship and structural reform, enhancing productivity and competitiveness, providing better services for the citizens and addressing global challenges. The G20 members aim to encourage innovation through practical actions to promote sustainable economic growth today and lay a solid foundation for tomorrow.

1.3 The G20, as a premier forum for international economic cooperation, comprises the world’s leading economies, with 90% of global GDP, more than 80% of global R&D investment and 70% of the global patent applications. The G20 members fully recognize the importance of embracing a dialogue on innovation in existing cooperation fora to encourage innovation-driven growth and foster a strong and sustained world economy.

II. Guiding principles

We, the G20 members, will support the following principles in the course of embracing a dialogue and cooperation on innovation.

Synergy

2.1 The G20 encourages the enhancement of synergy and cooperation in our respective national innovation systems involving a wide range of actors and stakeholders, and building dynamic, cooperative and inclusive innovation ecosystems.

In order to foster innovation and entrepreneurship, the G20 recognizes the importance of maintaining an enabling legal, regulatory, and policy environment, characterized by openness and transparency, stakeholder participation, non-discrimination, support for market competition, predictability, sound evidence-based policy making, and regulatory accountability

Cooperation

2.2 The G20 agrees to encourage cooperation through policy dialogues, sharing best practices and experience, and promoting collaboration to address common challenges. The G20 also recognizes the importance of the business sector among others in realizing the benefits of innovation and entrepreneurship, including partnership between public and private sectors and the partnership between large companies and SMEs.

Openness

2.3 The G20 supports efforts to promote voluntary knowledge diffusion and technology transfer on mutually agreed terms and conditions. Consistent with this approach, the G20 supports appropriate efforts to promote open science[2] and facilitate appropriate access to publicly funded research results on findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable (FAIR) principles. In furtherance of the above, the G20 emphasizes the importance of more open trade and investment regimes to facilitate innovation including through IPR protection, and improving public communication in science and technology.

Inclusiveness

2.4 The G20 endeavors to eradicate extreme poverty, and reduce inequality and social exclusion by providing, to the greatest extent possible, educational and other opportunities for all, especially addressing the needs of women, youth and the aged through inclusive innovation. The G20 encourages efforts to strengthen developing countries' capacity in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) to promote global sustainable development.

Creativity

2.5 The G20 encourages the creation of innovation ecosystems that support the combination of creative ideas with science, technology and innovation to foster people to start their own businesses and introduce innovations for economic growth and job creation. The G20 also recognizes the importance of empowering the ideas of people as effective tools for innovation.

III. Innovation Action Plan

3.1 Highlight innovation as a key driving force for global sustainable and balanced growth, creating jobs and ensuring people's well-being. Adopt pro-innovation strategies, policies and measures and support investment in STI. Encourage all G20 members to participate in the revision of the Oslo Manual: Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Innovation Data.

3.2 Provide a G20 innovation forum, by building a new online G20 Community of Practice within the existing Innovation Policy Platform[3] in collaboration with OECD and World Bank, to allow G20 members to make best use of this resource and share best practices regarding innovation policies, measures and evidence of impact.

3.3. Release 2016 G20 Innovation Report, based on data including from the 2014 OECDScience, Technology and Industry Outlook and 2015 Scoreboard. The report developed by OECD will include all G20 members[4], and cover the measurable indicators and the members’ experience, best practices and strategies as well as obstacles to implementation of these strategies.

3.4 Stimulate dialogues among governments, businesses and other stakeholders, including T20, universities, research institutes and non-governmental organizations on topics related to innovation and fostering public-private partnerships.

3.5 To increase collaboration on science and research activities, encourage discussion on open science and access to publicly-funded research results on findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable (FAIR) principles.

3.6 Support the mobility of science, technology and innovation human resources and efforts to help address the future demand for new skills. Share best practices on enhancing skills training for innovation and entrepreneurship, including improving access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education and highlight the role of youth through joint research and collaboration in innovation and entrepreneurship for job creation. The role of women in science, technology and innovation activities will continue to be valued and further supported.

3.7Support the Technology Facilitation Mechanisms of the United Nations in its efforts to promote coordination, coherence, and cooperation on STI-related matters; establish a comprehensive mapping of, and serve as a gateway for, information on existing STI initiatives, mechanisms, and programs; as well as facilitate the dissemination of relevant open access scientific publications generated worldwide, and discuss STI cooperation around thematic areas for the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

3.8 Address global challenges, such as climate change, resource scarcity, crosscutting challenges related to food, energy and water, sustainable cities, and affordable public healthcare, humanitarian challenges by reinforcing innovation cooperation, including the business sector and the public, based on existing mechanisms and joint programmes.

[1] The Oslo Manual definition, see: https://www.oecd.org/sti/inno/2367580.pdf.

[2] Open Science broadly refers to efforts to make the outputs of publicly funded research – both data and information – more accessible in digital format to the scientific community, the business sector and society more generally.(OECD).

[3] Innovation Policy Platform (www.innovationpolicyplatform.org) is currently operated by OECD and World Bank Group.

[4] Due to data limitation Saudi Arabia is not included.