In the 21st century knowledge-based economy, long-term economic growth and development depend on the ability to use the knowledge and technology so as to create product, process, organisational, marketing and even social innovations. The knowledge and technology, human resources and social capital (facilitating the transfer of technology from the world of science to the economy), comprise the most important production factors today. Research and development (R&D) activities are among the diverse determinants affecting the economy’s ability to innovate. They are carried out by public technical universities. One of the tasks that these entities face is to conduct basic, industrial (applied) research and development works. Their results can then be transferred to industrial and service enterprises as novel solutions. Research and development activities of universities are financed mainly from public sources, which suggests the need to assess the efficiency of this task. This can be done with the use of various methods, e.g. the non-parametric DEA method. The purpose of the paper is to measure the efficiency of research and development activities of public technical universities in Poland with the aid of the DEA method. The fourteen universities which in the years 2015–2017 reported to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW) were included in the study. The efficiency of the universities in filing new patent solutions and being granted patents was analysed. The results acquired indicate very low and low efficiency of most Polish technical universities. This is due both to a small number of patent applications and a small number of patents granted. In the examined period, the group of most efficient technical universities in both aspects comprised 4 to 5 universities.

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The growing complexity and intertwining of different socio-economic issues both in individual countries and internationally mean that single-theme analyses do not consider all the relationships and thus have cognitive limitations. Therefore, studies that combine several research areas are increasingly common in the literature to clarify the connections and relationships. In this study, considering the sequential nature of the stages, a combined analysis of eco-efficiency, eco-innovation, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was performed. The analysis was carried out for 27 European Union countries in 2017–2019. Dynamic Network SBM and Dynamic Divisional Malmquist Index were used for the study. The research results show that the EU countries achieve relatively higher efficiency results in eco-innovation and SDG than ecoefficiency. The average overall efficiency level for all EU countries was only 0.63. The change in productivity was influenced by both the frontier shift and catch-up effect, but only with regard to eco-efficiency and eco-innovation. At the same time, the frontier-shift effect did not affect the change in SDG productivity.

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