There is significant interest towards using Big Data and Data Analytics, or Policy Analytics, in policymaking. This said, a skills gap remains between practitioners and the broad leveraging of Policy Analytics. One of the objectives of the BIGPROD project is to organize an interactive learning workshop to inform public policy experts in the possibilities of Policy Analytics.

The BIGPROD project has, during the last two years, created a framework for using web scraped data in studying innovation. The project has web scraped information from close to 100 000 European Union and United Kingdom based companies, creating novel ways to measure product innovation, digitalization, collaboration and ecosystems and technology use in companies. In the interactive learning session, we will familiarize participants with the data and what type of novel insight can be gained from the data.

The session will also highlight potential challenged in using big data. These include potential black boxes created through aggregation and modelling, but also questions of data validity.

As an expected outcome from participating in the session you will be familiar with 1) the status of Policy Analytics, 2) know the state-of-the-art in creating web scraping based innovation policy measures, 3) know of tool and methods in policy analytics.