What the benchmark cannot measure

These 18 gaps sit across nine of the nine capabilities. If you know a dataset for one, send it. The message does not need to be complete: a link and a publisher is enough to start. Other ways to take part are on the ways to help page, and the full registry, scored rows included, is at indicators.

• Government foresight capacity

  Existence, mandate and continuity of a national strategic foresight function.

  Why it is open: No comparable international dataset. OECD and UN work is descriptive, not scored. Envisioning would have to build this.

  direct capability measure, measured in index 0-100Suggest a dataset for this

• Long-horizon research commitments

  New competitively awarded public research grants that run for five years or longer, as a share of all new competitive public research grants awarded in the year.

  Why it is open: Redefined 2026-10-02 (D152). The row asked for the share of R&D spending classed as basic research, which is the make-up of a spending stock, the construct D142 retired business R&D share for. OECD MSTI publishes that share for its members only, and UNESCO UIS no longer serves R&D by type of research (construct audit, 2026-10-02). The behaviour behind it is a funder committing to a horizon: a grant awarded for five years or more is a decision to wait for a result. Untried: no memo has triaged a grant register. National funders publish award lists one by one with their own durations, and commercial grant aggregators fail the inspectability rule. Wireable on a grant-level register with award and end dates, on one definition of a competitive public grant, for half the frame or more.

  direct capability measure, measured in % of new grantsSuggest a dataset for this

• Adults doing digital tasks

  Share of adults who carried out a named digital task in the last three months, such as sending a message with an attached file, moving a file between devices or using a spreadsheet formula, counted one task at a time and never as a skill level.

  Why it is open: Redefined 2026-10-02 (D152). The row asked whether adults can perform standard digital tasks, which reads a skill level, the kind of stock D122 moved out of the scores with internet users. It now counts the act: a person who did the task. It is not the internet users condition beside it, which counts access. Candidate: ITU ICT skills by type (SDG 4.4.1) through the UNESCO UIS API, probed 2026-10-02. Sent a message with an attached file reaches 33 of the 53 countries then in the frame, 25 at 2018 or later, with no United States, India or China and most of Africa and Central America missing; two other task items reach 31 and 16. The items are self-reported and the task list has changed between rounds. Wireable on one task observed for half the frame or more at 2018 or later.

  direct capability measure, measured in % of adultsSuggest a dataset for this

• University-industry collaboration

  Intensity of research collaboration between universities and firms.

  Why it is open: GII carries it, but the underlying item is a WEF executive opinion survey whose microdata is not inspectable. Excluded on principle 4.

  direct capability measure, measured in index 0-100Suggest a dataset for this

• Public-private collaboration

  Frequency and scale of joint public-private delivery of national objectives.

  Why it is open: No comparable dataset. PPP investment databases measure infrastructure finance, not collaboration capacity.

  direct capability measure, measured in index 0-100Suggest a dataset for this

• Trust in public institutions

  Confidence in national government, courts and civil service.

  Why it is open: The OECD survey covers members only. Mixing it with WVS items for India and South Africa would break comparability. The Joint EVS/WVS confidence battery (E069) reaches 37 countries from one release, and confidence in the courts (E069_17) is published beside Trust as a check under this id rather than scored: every item of the battery tested (courts, civil service, police, parliament and government) reads higher in the closed and electoral autocracies of the frame than in its democracies, which is deference as much as confidence (A13). The gap stays open for a measure that does not reward a court that cannot rule against the state. See D132.

  perception proxy, measured in % expressing confidenceSuggest a dataset for this

• Court case clearance rate

  Civil and commercial cases resolved in a year as a share of cases filed in the same year.

  Why it is open: Whether a court finishes what it starts, counted from case records rather than asked in a survey. D23 named it as the observable replacement for the two retired WGI composites and it has stayed unfilled since. CEPEJ publishes it for Council of Europe members and OECD for its own members, so no single publisher reaches this country set, and a harmonised series needs the project second source adapter. See D57.

  downstream outcome, measured in % of incoming casesSuggest a dataset for this

• Adult learning participation

  Share of adults in formal or non-formal education and training in the last 12 months.

  Why it is open: The best available measure of continuous learning capacity, and it exists only for European and OECD members.

  direct capability measure, measured in % of adultsSuggest a dataset for this

• Venture deals

  First venture capital rounds closed by companies based in the country in the year, per million people, counted by deal and never by amount.

  Why it is open: Redefined 2026-10-02 (D152). The id keeps its first name so evidence records, links and published files still resolve. The row asked for venture capital deployed as a share of GDP, a level of financial depth of the kind private credit is (D122). A count of first rounds counts attempts started with outside risk money, which is what this capability asks about, and a large round counts once. Candidates, none wireable: the OECD SME and Entrepreneurship Financing scoreboard carried venture capital for 6 of the 16 countries the frame held on 2026-08-26, as amounts in national currency, latest year 2022, with Brazil, India, South Africa and Singapore absent (D21); national venture capital associations publish counts on their own definitions; commercial deal databases cover the world and are not inspectable (D10). Wireable on an inspectable deal count with one definition of a first round for half the frame or more. Read A1 before treating this dimension as measured.

  direct capability measure, measured in per million peopleSuggest a dataset for this

• Firms through regulatory sandboxes

  Firms admitted to, and firms completing, a regulatory sandbox or controlled trial regime in the year, per million people, summed across every regulator in the country.

  Why it is open: Redefined 2026-10-02 (D152). The row asked for the number and breadth of live sandboxes, which is a policy stock: a regime can exist with nobody in it. It now counts what passes through: firms a regulator let test under relaxed rules, and firms that came out, authorised, withdrawn or failed. Regulators publish cohort lists and exit reports one by one. The evidence corpus holds 22 records against this row, most of them counts of firms admitted or exited, each on the definition and window of its own regulator, and no register assembles them on one definition (O1 triage sweep, 2026-10-01). A realistic candidate for Envisioning to build from those lists. Wireable on a register that counts admissions and completions on one definition for half the frame or more.

  direct capability measure, measured in firms per million peopleSuggest a dataset for this

• University spinouts

  Companies formed to commercialise university research, per million people.

  Why it is open: Reported nationally with incompatible definitions of what counts as a spinout.

  direct capability measure, measured in per million peopleSuggest a dataset for this

• Disaster preparedness and recovery

  Demonstrated capacity to prepare for and recover from major shocks.

  Why it is open: No source observes a country preparing for or recovering from a real shock. INFORM publishes its lack of coping capacity apart from hazard and exposure, but that dimension averages government self-assessments and governance perception indices with stocks such as roads, phones and physicians, which is the perception layer D23 retired plus conditions money buys (D122). Sendai and WHO reporting are governments grading themselves. A warning-reach survey item is a check candidate. See the disaster preparedness memo.

  direct capability measure, measured in index 0-100Suggest a dataset for this

• Institutional responsiveness

  Speed at which rules and public programmes are changed in response to new conditions.

  Why it is open: No dataset exists. Measurable in principle from legislative and regulatory timestamps, which no one has assembled comparably.

  direct capability measure, measured in index 0-100Suggest a dataset for this

• Large project delivery

  Cost and schedule performance of major public infrastructure projects.

  Why it is open: The single best measure of execution capability and there is no comparable international dataset. Assembling one is a defensible Envisioning project. Building mixes industrial output with state delivery capacity, and this indicator carries the delivery side: the other six indicators cannot see a national programme that was delivered. Documented deliveries are recorded in data/evidence and never scored, see D20.

  direct capability measure, measured in % overrunSuggest a dataset for this

• Firm scale-up rate

  Share of young firms reaching significant employment or turnover thresholds.

  Why it is open: OECD business dynamics work covers members irregularly. Nothing comparable for India, Brazil or South Africa.

  direct capability measure, measured in % of firmsSuggest a dataset for this

• Sense of national belonging

  Reported identification with and attachment to the national community, as distinct from pride in the nation.

  Why it is open: A declared gap again since 2026-10-02 (D151, which supersedes the retirement in D143). The project still wants to know whether people count themselves members of the community whose common project this capability asks about, so the row stays even though no series can fill it. The only cross-national item aimed at it, national pride (G006) in the Joint EVS/WVS, is not wired: pride is not belonging, and it fails the regime test of artefact A13, with electoral autocracies at 75 percent very proud against 47 in liberal democracies. ISSP 2023 asks about closeness to the country in 16 countries. Wireable on an item that reads the same in every regime class, or on a behaviour of belonging, for half the frame or more. High national pride must never be read as the capacity for collective action.

  perception proxy, measured in % expressing belongingSuggest a dataset for this

• Volunteering

  Share of adults who volunteered time to an organisation in the last month.

  Why it is open: CAF publishes country figures but the underlying Gallup microdata is proprietary, so it fails the inspectability rule.

  direct capability measure, measured in % of adultsSuggest a dataset for this

• Political polarisation

  Degree to which political differences run along a single hostile divide.

  Why it is open: V-Dem political polarization (v2cacamps) is published beside this dimension as a behavioral check and is not scored, because a regime with no organized opposition reads as calm (D121, A13). The gap stays open for a measure that can tell calm between competing camps from calm where no camp may compete. Pluralism is the target, so only hostile polarization should count against a country.

  perception proxy, measured in index 0-4Suggest a dataset for this

• Government effectiveness Coordination

  Retired 2026-08-26. The WGI aggregate the opinions of experts and firms, and in this set the four WGI series correlate with each other between 0.93 and 0.98 while correlating with log GDP per capita at 0.91. That is one perception of national wealth counted in three dimensions. Cross-agency delivery records are the replacement and they are a declared gap. See D23 and A4.

• Regulatory quality Coordination

  Retired 2026-08-26. Same measurement as government effectiveness, filed under a different name, correlating with it above 0.93. See D23 and A4.

• Logistics performance Coordination

  Retired 2026-08-26. The LPI is a survey of international freight forwarders, so it records how a country looks to global logistics firms. A small country with a small port scores low whatever its state can organise, which is artefact A9. Container throughput and border time are observable and stay. See D23.

• Rule of law Trust

  Retired 2026-08-26. A WGI perception composite correlating with control of corruption above 0.95 and with log GDP per capita at 0.83. Court throughput and case clearance rates are the observable replacement and are a declared gap. See D23 and A4.

• Control of corruption Trust

  Retired 2026-08-26. A WGI perception composite. It measures reputation for corruption, which is not the same thing as corruption, and it tracks income closely. Prosecution and audit records are the observable replacement and are a declared gap. See D23 and A4.

• Intentional homicide rate Trust

  Added 2026-08-26 by D23 as the observable replacement for two retired WGI perception composites, and retired 2026-08-27 by D44 when the diagnostic built in D42 measured what it was doing. It raised this dimension's correlation with log GDP per capita by 0.288, from 0.096 to 0.385, the largest single wealth contribution anywhere in the model. It was added to fix wealth contamination and it was the wealth contamination. The dataset is sound and the objection is to what it measures here: homicide is driven heavily by organised crime, a society can be physically safe while trusting very little, and across this country set the variation it carries is mostly income. Behavioural trust measures remain a gap.

• Business share of R&D Experimentation

  Retired 2026-10-02. The only working source, OECD MSTI joined with RICYT for Latin America, covers 34 of the 53 countries then in the frame, but the row reads the make-up of a spending stock: who performs the R&D a country pays for. R&D spending itself is a condition since D122, and the share is high both where business research is large (Israel) and where total research is tiny and one firm dominates it (Thailand). State enterprises count as business, so China and Vietnam read their ownership model. UIS stopped publishing the series in 2023. Firms trying new things are read through patents, trademarks, designs and entrepreneurship instead. See D142.

• Logistics infrastructure quality Building

  Retired 2026-08-26. An LPI sub-index, so the same freight-forwarder survey as logistics performance and the same problem. Electricity connection speed stays as the observable infrastructure measure in this dimension. See D23.

• Voice and accountability Shared Purpose

  Retired 2026-08-26. Artefact A5: it measures the democratic channel while Shared Purpose asks whether people can see themselves in a common project. Singapore scored 20.9 while being one of the most effective collective actors in the set. Volunteering and civic participation are the observable replacements and are declared gaps; voter turnout is published beside Shared Purpose as a check, because it reads the same democratic channel and compulsory voting (D129). See D23 and A5.

Each retirement has a decision entry that names the evidence, so you can argue with any of them. File an objection if you think one of them should be scored.