The Community Innovation Survey (CIS) is a survey conducted by EU member states that allows the monitoring of Europe’s progress in the area of innovation. The survey was originally conducted every four years, but since 2005 has been conducted every two. The UK Innovation Survey 2007, the fifth Europe-wide CIS was sent to 28,000 UK enterprises with 10 or more employees and achieved a 53 per cent response rate. It provides the UK data covering the three-year period from 2004 to 2006.
Business innovation is a vital ingredient in raising the productivity, competitiveness and growth potential of modern economies. Providing the right economic conditions for, and using appropriate policy instruments to encourage innovation in the UK is a central objective. Measuring the level of innovation activity in the UK and identifying where policy might be best targeted contributes to the pursuit of that objective. The Community Innovation Survey complements other indicators of innovativeness by providing a regular snapshot of innovation inputs and outputs and the constraints faced by UK businesses in their innovation efforts, across the range of UK industries and business enterprises. It has the additional benefit of providing the basis for some comparisons with other European countries.
The survey includes sections on factors that hamper innovation, the impact of innovation on the business and the sources of information used. It also touches on aspects of the wider innovation process, such as the introduction of new management techniques.
The previous Community Innovation Survey, CIS 4, took place in 2005. Prior to this CIS3 took place in 2001, and CIS 2 in 1997. Analyses of the results of these surveys can be found below:
The CIS3 Questionnaire is available in pdf format from the following link:
