The main purpose of this contract is to yield support for the preparation of statistics, indicators and analysis in order to generate new information to underpin R&D policy development in the context of the Barcelona 3% objective and the O.M.C. process. The support is sought in the form of a series of targeted study reports based on the results of statistical and analytical work in the following fields of R&D policy: R&D investment and performance in the wider macro-economic context, fiscal incentives, venture capital measures that aim to boost R&D investment, sectoral analysis of R&D performance: analysis by detailed field of science (public sector); information and communication technologies, nanotechnology, pharmaceuticals, the automobile industry; investment in knowledge intensive services and sectors and knowledge flows and transfers, public sector research reform, the interface between R&D and public procurement, new technological markets, R&D in service industries, rates of return of R&D as well as the societal and economic contexts that govern the supply and demand of R&D, in particular the ageing population and changes in market structures.