Data included in this chapter were obtained through separate annual statistical surveys taken in businesses and households (research and development survey, survey on the use of information and communication technologies in businesses and households) and from other sources such as those of the CZSO (labour force sample survey) or external administrative data sources (Institute for Information on Education, Industrial Property Office, Ministry of Finance of the CR – Directorate General of Customs, Czech National Bank, Czech Telecommunication Office, etc.).

A. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

      Science refers to a consistent system of verifiable observations and findings on a given set of phenomena as well as of methods used to obtain, process, explain in theory, and use these observations and findings.

      Technologies take two fundamental forms: (i) tangible: knowledge embodied in physical objects (machines, equipment, instruments, etc.) or (ii) intangible: knowledge accumulated in people (human capital), information embodied in electronic media and documents (software, plans, designs, observation results, mathematical calculations, maps, etc.) and knowledge embodied in an institutional form – i.e. arrangement of activities and relations (organizational structure, management system, standards, regulations, etc.). Hence, while science is concerned about how and why certain things occur, technology is focussed on the means of their implementation.

Notes on tables

Tables 13-1 and 13-2. Human resources in science and technology

      Human resources in science and technology (HRST) are defined in the Canberra manual (Manual on the measurement of human resources devoted to S&T, OECD, Paris, 1995) as people who fulfil one or other of the following conditions:

– they successfully completed education at the third (tertiary) level in an S&T field of study as defined by the International Standard Classification of Education, ISCED 97; or

– they are not formally qualified as the above mentioned, but employed in a S&T occupation, defined according to the International Standard Classification of Occupations, ISCO-88 (in the CR according to the national Classification of Occupations (KZAM-R) harmonized with the ISCO-88), where the above qualifications are normally required.

      Human resources in science and technology are monitored within the framework of the HRST system in terms of their stocks as of a certain date and of their flows in a reference period.

      Table 13-1 gives the total number of students engaged in and graduated from tertiary education (ISCED levels 5B, 5A, 6) in science (fields of study: life sciences; physical sciences; mathematics and statistics; computing) and in engineering, manufacturing and construction (fields of study: engineering and engineering trades; manufacturing and processing; architecture and building). The data were obtained from data sources of the Institute for Information on Education.

      Table 13-2 gives the stock of human resources in science and technology. The stock comprises people who successfully finished the tertiary level of education (ISCED levels 5B, 5A, 6) in the following main field-of-study groups: education; humanities and arts; social sciences, business and law; science (life and physical sciences, mathematics and statistics and computing); engineering, manufacturing and construction; agriculture (agriculture, forestry and fishery; veterinary); health and welfare; and other, the ‘science’ field of study and the ‘engineering, manufacturing and construction’ field of study being considered more relevant for measuring the HRST. All people in R&D employment – i.e. professionals (ISCO-88 major group 2) and technicians and associate professionals (ISCO-88 major group 3) constitute another part of the HRST. The persons who meet both the condition of successful completion of tertiary education and that of R&D employment make up the HRST core; in other words, they are the most valuable for the HRST system – they take an active part in scientific and technological development. The data come from the CZSO’s labour force sample survey.

Table 13-3 to 13-9. Research and development

      The R&D data presented in this part of the chapter were derived from the regular annual statistical survey on research and development taken in all businesses (individual R&D workplaces since 2001) having R&D as their main or secondary activity, irrespective of the number of people they employ. The survey is fully governed by the recommended international methodology given in the Frascati manual which was made by OECD in 2002 as a manual to standardize R&D indicators – measurement and evaluation of human (number of employees) and financial (internal expenditure) resources designed for research and development activities.

      Since the reference year 2001 the R&D data have been also monitored by CZ-NUTS 3 region, according to the location of R&D workplaces of the reporting units. To improve the quality of the data, mathematical statistical methods were put in use in the year mentioned above to make estimates for the reporting units that failed to supply completed questionnaires (non-response). The number of contracts for work and contracts of service signed in the area of R&D has been separately measured, too.

      The concept ‘research and development’ in the CR is defined by Act No. 130/2002 Coll., on the Support to Research and Development from Public Funds and on Amendments to Certain Acts. For the purpose of the Act, research and development is defined by systematic creative work carried out to bring new knowledge and/or the use thereof. The concept is further split into:

      Research – systematic and creative work that enriches the understanding, including the understanding of man, culture, and society, using methods which allow confirmation, supplementation or refutation of acquired knowledge. It includes:

– basic research – experimental or theoretical work undertaken to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundation of phenomena and observable facts to explain causes thereof and possible impacts when observed findings are used, and

– applied research – experimental or theoretical work undertaken to acquire new knowledge directed to future practical uses. The part of the applied research whose results are used, through development, in new products, technologies and services designed for business under special regulations (Commercial Code; Act No. 77/1997 Coll., on the State Enterprise, as last amended) is referred to as industrial research; and

      Development (experimental) – is systematic creative work drawing on existing knowledge gained from research and/or practical experience, which is directed to producing new materials, products or devices, installing new processes, systems and services, or improving substantially those already produced or installed, including acquisition and verification of prototypes, pilot plants or demonstrational plants.

      The Frascati manual lays down five sectors as possible financing sources, of which four (excl. the rest-of-the-world sector) are specified for statistical identification of areas in which R&D activities are carried out. They are:

– business sector – comprises all firms, organizations and institutions whose principal activity is to produce goods or services for sale to general public at an economically significant price,

– general government sector – comprises state administration authorities at all levels (central, regional, local), except for publicly managed institutes of higher professional and university education,

– higher professional and university education sector (higher education sector) – comprises all universities, colleges of technology, and other institutes of post-secondary education. It also includes all research institutes, experimental stations and clinics operating under the direct control or administration of higher professional and university education establishments or are associated with them. The sector is not any separate institutional sector of national accounting – the OECD identified it separately for its important role in research and development,

– non-profit institutions serving households sector (NPISH sector) – comprises private or semi-public institutions, not established to primarily make profits, whose principal function is to provide non-market services to households. They are e.g. associations, societies, trade and other unions, movements, federations, foundations, religious societies, etc.

– rest-of-the-world sector – comprises all institutions and individuals based outside the political frontiers of the CR. Except for gainfully active firms, international organizations, including their facilities, plants and equipment within the country, belong to this sector, too.

Table 13-3. R&D aggregates

      R&D employees are research workers directly engaged in R&D, as well as auxiliary workers, technicians, administrators and other persons working at R&D workplaces of the reporting units. They also include employees in charge of providing direct services for R&D activities. Since 2001, the number of contracts for work and contracts of service signed in the area of R&D has been separately measured.

      Registered number of employees as of 31 December in terms of actual workers (headcount) refers to the number of persons active, fully or in part, in R&D activities (human resources in research and development). Before 2001 the number also included contracts for work and of service in R&D in force as of the end of the reference year.

      Average registered number of R&D employees, in terms of full-time equivalent (FTE). One FTE equals one-year (full-time) work of an employee who is 100% engaged in R&D activities. For employees, who are also engaged in other activities than R&D, only the R&D-related working time is counted in, so that overestimation of the number of employees engaged in R&D will be avoided. The FTE indicator also takes account of the number of persons working for the reporting unit under contracts for work or of service, adjusted as the FTE methodology dictates.

      Internal expenditure on R&D (R&D expenditure) – all internal R&D expenditure spent within a reporting unit or an economic sector irrespective of the source of financing. Expenditure made outside the reporting unit, but supporting internal R&D (e.g. purchases of deliveries for R&D), is included. The internal R&D expenditure consists of:

– non-investment R&D expenditure, further split into: total wages of registered R&D employees, whose volume corresponds to the share of the working time spent on R&D activities and includes health and social insurance contributions paid by employers for their employees,

      – remuneration for work or service as laid down in contracts for work and of service in the area of R&D, implemented outside contracts of employment,

      – other non-investment expenditure (on material, supplies and equipment to support R&D activities of the reporting unit and on services hired or purchased for R&D). Depreciation of buildings, machinery and mechanical equipment is not included in the statistical measurement of internal R&D expenditure;

– acquisition of intangible and tangible fixed assets for R&D, further split into:

      – intangible fixed assets – expenditure on intangible R&D results, software, know-how, licences, industrial rights, and on other results of intellectual creative activity, be they subject of valuable rights, both acquired or provided, or not,

      – land, buildings and structures – expenditure on land acquired for R&D needs (e.g. experimental laboratories) and buildings either bought or built up, expenditure on technical improvement of buildings, etc.,

      – other tangible fixed assets– expenditure on technical and other equipment necessary for R&D activities (machines, devices, computers, means of transport, etc.).

Table 13-5. Employees engaged in R&D: by occupation, educational achievement and field of science

R&D employees are split by occupation into:

– research workers – professionals engaged in outlining and creating or producing new knowledge, products, processes, methods and systems and/or in managing such projects. They are mostly employees classified to major group 2 “Professionals” (Research and professional intellectual workers) and subdivision 1237 (R&D Department Managers) of the CZ-ISCO-88,

– technicians and associate staff (hereinafter referred to as Technicians) – persons who participate in R&D by performing scientific and technical tasks by applying concepts and operational methods, normally under the supervision of researchers. They are mostly employees classified to the CZ-CZSO-88 sub-major groups 31 (Physical and engineering science associate professionals) and 32 (Life science and health associate professionals),

– other supporting staff (hereinafter referred to as Others) – craftsmen and secretarial and clerical staff who participate in R&D activities or are directly associated with them; managers and administrators insofar as their activities are direct serving to R&D are included.

R&D employees are split by highest educational achievement into:

      Other information on science and technology is available in the CZSO publications brought out according to the CZSO Catalogue of Publications 2004 (group 9 – SERVICES, subgroup 96 – Research and Development):

– “Human Resources in Science and Technology 2001 and 2002” (Czech-English version)

– “Research and Development Indicators in the Czech Republic 2003” (Czech-English version), September 2004

– “Science and Technology Indicators in the Czech Republic 1995-2002” (Czech-English version), September 2004.

B. INFORMATION SOCIETY

      Information society is a term used in connection with (i) the introduction, development and dissemination of new information and communication technologies in particular (computer, Internet, etc.) that make it possible to quickly transmit information (data, sound or audiovisual form) to various areas of everyday life, and (ii) the way they are used and the impact they have.

Notes on tables

Table 13-13. Basic infrastructure of information and communication technologies Unless specified otherwise, the data listed in this table were obtained from the Czech Telecommunication Office.

      Main telephone line: subscriber’s connection to the public telecommunication network as far as a terminal point of the network, designed for access to telephone service and having a clearly specified point of connection in telephone exchange equipment.

      Main telephone lines in the public network – residential: main telephone lines established for natural persons for their personal needs.

      Main telephone lines in the public network – business: main telephone lines established for legal persons, state administration authorities and other institutions, and for legal persons for business purposes.

      Internet subscribers (estimate): estimate by secondary providers of Internet services (e.g. Internet coffee bars, schools, libraries) showing the number of subscribers in the reference period.

      CTVR subscribers, total: all registered subscribers to cable television and radio on files of operators of television and radio distribution systems.

      Internet subscribers, total: total number of clients that use at least one service of the Internet network. The client is a natural or legal person that is connected to a complex global computer network and uses services of access to Internet on the basis of a contract with a provider of such services.

      Internet subscribers with dial-up connection: total number of contractual clients on dial-up circuits.

      Internet subscribers with fixed connection: number of clients connected via fixed circuit.

      Internet subscribers with CTVR connection: number of clients connected via a cable television distribution system.

      PCs directly connected to Internet (Internet “hosts”): number of host computers (hosts). The host computer is a computer which is directly connected to a global network (has an IP address). It is identified by a three-character country code which generally shows the nature of the organization that uses the computer connected to Internet. The number of hosts is assigned to a country based on the country code, though it does not necessarily implies that the host is located in the country concerned. Data source: Réseaux IP Européens, Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC).

      Domain is a basic address on Internet. It represents an IP (Internet Protocol) address. It is registered by a registration authority (association CZ.NIC in the Czech Republic) authorized to administer respective domains of the highest level. The Czech national domain in zone .cz (ccTLD CZ) is appropriate for entities operating in the Czech Republic and for www pages written in Czech. The number of registered domains is related to December of reference year.

Tables 13-14 to 13-21. Information and communication technologies in the business sector

      The data were provided via a regular annual statistical survey on the use of information and communication technologies in the business sector. The population for the survey embraced unincorporated and incorporated natural and legal persons with 5-9 employees (mutation a) and 10+ employees (mutation b) operating in all areas of economy except for ‘agriculture’, ‘mining and quarrying’, ‘public administration and defence, compulsory social security’, ‘education’, ‘health’, and ‘non-profit institutions’. The survey followed up a pilot survey on the use of information and communication technologies and e-commerce in the business sector and was grounded on a similar survey run in the EU member states (Community Survey on ICT usage and e-commerce in Enterprises 2003). It was comparable with the latter in terms of methodology and content.

      The survey was focused on a wide range of indicators on the currency (infrastructure) of different advanced information technologies and systems and the degree of their usage in the Czech business sector. For the reason of international comparison the Statistical Yearbook lists key indicators for businesses with 10+ employees. The presented data are broken down by size group (number of employees in the businesses) on the one hand and by principal activity (CZ-NACE sections D, E, F, G, I, J, K, O; and CZ-NACE groups 55.1 and 55.2 of section H) of the businesses on the other hand.

      Broadband: defined by the maximum data transfer speed to the user, which should be higher than 128 kb/s.

      Dynamic web pages: web pages whose contents are changed and generated according to input data, either on the side of the server or the client. For example, if a query to a database is made, the server passes the query to the database first and then generates the page with the answer.

      Local area network, LAN: a network in which the user (organization, business) is typically identical to the operator of the network. The network is a property of the user, has shorter distances between its nodes and (often) higher transmission speeds. LANs are used especially for the development of internal communication, data transfer, sharing of the same programmes as well as of data files, peripheries, etc. – generally for electronic interconnection of individual processes of businesses.

      Intranet: a local virtual computer network based on TCP/IP technologies. It provides services like Internet. A specific example of applications of Internet mechanisms: as web pages, electronic mail, etc. to private environments of businesses. Intranet meets the need to share information and to operate information system within a business.

      Extranet: a local virtual computer network based on TCO/IP technologies. It provides services like Internet. Unlike Intranet, however, its certain part goes beyond the borders of a business to safely share information and implement electronic operations with suppliers, dealers, partners, customers and other subjects. To put it simply, Extranet is Intranet which is made accessible, wholly or part thereof, to other businesses.

      Electronic commerce (e-commerce): undertaking of business transactions (or parts thereof) with the help of advanced means of information and communication technologies. The questionnaire used the OECD definition which defines electronic commerce as the sale or purchase of goods or services, whether between businesses, households individuals, governments, and other public or private organisations conducted over networks based on the internet protocol (Internet, Extranet via Internet, EDI via Internet, …) or over other computer interconnected networks (system EDI via private computer interconnected networks which do not use the internet protocol, …).

      Purchase or sale via Internet: purchase/sale of goods and services undertaken over computer networks based on Internet protocols, mostly through the seller’s www interface. The purchase or sale of goods or services whose orders were placed on the basis of information obtained via Internet and in a classic way (by phone, fax, order in writing or non-interactive e-mail) is not included. For the purchase to be included, a good or service must be ordered electronically via Internet – www interface of the seller. Payment and delivery of the goods can be executed off-line, not via Internet.

      Electronic data interchange (EDI) system: electronic exchange of data in a structure form (e.g. of orders, invoices, debentures, etc.), based on agreed message standards between information systems of businesses and carried out with the help of electronic means through reserved, mostly private computer connected networks not based on Internet.

Table 13-22 to 13-26. Information and communication technologies in households and among individuals

      The data rely on the first periodic annual statistical survey on the use of information and communication technologies in households and among individuals – natural persons (ICT survey for short). The survey was conducted by the CZSO in the 4th quarter of 2003 and followed up its pilot survey carried out in a limited number of respondents in the 3rd quarter of 2002.

      The survey was implemented in the framework of the CZSO’s labour force sample survey (LFSS), in which it used separate questionnaires. This permitted to relate the ICT data to socio-demographic characteristics of persons in individual households. The ICT survey was a survey run on a sample of 8 500 individuals aged 15+ and used the face-to-face method. Its questionnaire comprised 53 ICT-related questions, of which 9 for households and 44 for individuals. The LFSS methodology was then employed to gross up the results to universe.

      Table 13-22 gives information on households which dispose at home of selected information and communication technologies (fixed telephone line, PC, PC connected to Internet, broadband connection) broken down by administrative region.

      Personal computer: desktop, notebook or handheld.

      Broadband: connection that offers higher data transfer speeds. Included in the survey were TV cable distribution system, ASDL, satellite and other wireless connection and hired data circuit (fixed line).

      Table 13-23 shows access of individuals to information and communication technologies of personal nature (mobile, portable computer) for private purposes and to PCs and Internet at home, broken down by administrative region.

      Table 13-24 concerns the usage of computer and Internet by individuals. It shows where and how often the respondents use the computer and Internet and whether they attended computer training. It also gives the share of e-commerce users.

      Table 13-25 specifies what individuals use Internet for. It particularly monitors activities in the area of communication and searching on-line for free information and services for private use. It also shows kinds of goods and services bought by individuals via Internet.

      Table 13-26 characterises computer skills of individuals by different computer application or specific activity.

      Other information concerning statistics on information society is available in the following CZSO publications brought out according to the CZSO Catalogue of Publications 2004 (group 9 – SERVICES, subgroup 96 – Research and Development):

– “Results of the Survey on ICT Usage in Enterprises in the Czech Republic 2003” (Czech-English version), December 2004