CS&S is pleased to announce the Innovation Information Initiative (I³) as our latest fiscally sponsored project. I³ is a multi-institutional collaboration funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
The mission of I³ is to create a comprehensive public registry for patent and innovation data, and to connect the community of innovation scholars through shared methods and collaboratively refined data.
The problem I³ sets out to solve
While patent data is the standard for how innovation is measured, such data is often inaccessible or hard to use. In addition, patents cover only a subset of inventions and innovations. More contextual and comprehensive information is needed about research and interactions between the scholarly and patent-driven innovation communities. I³ develops public resources and tools that capture this context, including a collaborative registry and citation graphs that link patents to scholarship. It connects open data communities studying different knowledge networks, to better understand innovation.
Goals and upcoming work
In the coming year, I³ will continue supporting efforts to develop public innovation datasets and metrics, including Lens Labs, Reliance on Science, Scaling Science, and IProduct. To help projects make their work more discoverable, I³ has created guides for sharing data and models, and is compiling a catalog of innovation resources, with a workflow for contributing new datasets. The catalog highlights datasets that are well-documented and openly licensed, and aligned with public identifiers such as the LensID and Wikidata QID, to facilitate data interoperability.
I³ is also convening a series of workshops for the growing community of researchers to share their work and methods. Workshops are recorded and open to the public.
I³’s unique and impactful work fits into CS&S’s founding mission to advance the power of data to improve the social and economic lives of all people.
To learn more
Read about I³’s current lineup of workshops and initiatives, or join our public mailing list.
