E. Louise Earl

E. Louise Earl has extensive national and international experience in the measurement of science, technology, and innovation (ST&I) and the development of related statistical indicators. As a former vice chair of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Working Party of National Experts on Science and Technology Indicators (NESTI, 2016 to 2018), she contributed to setting international work plans and provided significant input into NESTI’s major revisions of two key ST&I classification manuals: the Oslo Manual 2018, Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Innovation Data, and the Frascati Manual 2015, Proposed Standard Practice for Surveys on Research and Development. She is best known for championing the measurement of innovation to all sectors of the economy and developing methods to measure knowledge management and other technology management and use practices.

Louise is currently a Senior Advisor at Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, responsible for the creation of a research program and data series to enhance evidence-based analysis of the outcomes and impacts of government business innovation and growth support programs.

Previously, at Statistics Canada, Louise’s contributions to Canada’s ST&I statistical program included initiating the analysis of public sector innovation and knowledge management practices, extending research and development (R&D) indicators to comprise fields of R&D activities in the business enterprise and private non-profit organizations, results of R&D and trade in R&D outputs, improving data quality across the suite of R&D expenditures and personnel data series, and expanding data series related to innovation, intellectual property management and business strategies. She also led big data projects that pulled from both administrative tax datasets and publicly available web-based data with a view to improving ST&I coverage and content.

A keen collaborator, Louise’s recent contributions to the field of ST&I measurement include the co-edited special edition “Inclusive Innovation in Developing Countries” of the Technology Innovation Management Review (February 2018) and the co-organized “Inclusive Innovation: What Works? What Next?” panel discussion held in March 2019. Louise is the co-editor of National Innovation, Indicators and Policy (2006, Edward Elgar) and is the author of chapters in Measuring Knowledge Management in the Business Sector: First Steps (2003, OECD). Her analytical works at Statistics Canada on topics such as impacts of science, technology and innovation; organization and technological change in the public and private sectors; indicators of growth firms; knowledge management practices; household e-commerce; and wage gaps have been published in the Canadian Economic Observer, Perspectives on Labour and Income, Services Indicators, Health Reports, Focus on Culture, and various working papers series.

Louise holds a Master of Arts from Queen’s University, Kingston and a Bachelor of Arts degree with first class honours from the University of New Brunswick.

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