Promoting innovation in transition countries: A trajectory for smart specialisation

Innovation policies seek to prepare an economy for the future by steering it on a transformation path to make it more competitive in increasingly global and interconnected markets. While most advanced economies have a tradition of strategymaking for territorially based innovation and economic development, transition countries moving from centralised unaccountable planning to decentralised democratic policymaking have no working, market-based practices to build on. Governments in such contexts often resort to mimicking the economic priorities and instruments of advanced countries. We suggest a trajectory for transition countries to avoid the widespread pitfall of poorly defined innovation policies by upgrading and changing their industrial polices in line with the ideas embedded in the concept of innovation strategies for smart specialisation (RIS3): (1) Build a trusted ‘competence centre’ to provide a comprehensive analysis of your economic fabric and coordinate the process; (2) Begin with one strong economic domain in which engaged stakeholders work together with government bodies to define joint priorities and actions (domain experimentation); (3) Start with one region to experiment with different approaches at subnational level (territorial experimentation); (4) Sequence your process in a way you can harvest the low-hanging fruits in the short-term (non-R & D measures), focus on the core of your activities with high potential in the medium term, and leave R & D-heavy breakthrough programmes for the longer term.JRC.B.3-Territorial Developmen

Measuring the opening of national R&D programs: what indicators for what purposes?

The opening of national research programs has gained importance as a means for increasing international collaboration and for improving the quality and efficiency of scientific research at the national, European, and international levels. The concept of opening refers to the fact that actors who do not belong to a national research space can participate in research funding programs. This complex and multidimensional phenomenon can be operationalized through different measures: the participation of foreign partners in domestic research activities with or without funding, the portability of grants when moving abroad, and agreements for international collaboration (with or without complementary funding). This underlines the importance of having descriptors and indicators, which could provide evidence of different patterns of opening and contrasting perspectives on policy motivations and goals behind opening decisions. The article presents the descriptors and indicators used for exploring opening patterns and logics, which characterize the main project funding instruments in three countries (Switzerland, France, and Italy) on the basis of data collected within the JOREP1 project. Preliminary evidence emerging from the three countries surveyed are presented and discusse

ASIRPA - Analyse des Impacts de la Recherche Publique Agronomique. Rapport final

Le rapport fait le bilan de trois années de recherche concernant les méthodologies d'évaluation d'un organisme public de recherche finalisée. Au cours de trois années de recherche, l’équipe ASIRPA a construit une approche d’évaluation fondée sur la réalisation d’études de cas standardisées, conciliant analyse qualitative et quantitative des impacts des recherches selon cinq dimensions d’analyse. La démarche a été utilisée avec succès par les départements de recherche de l’institut. Une analyse transversale des 30 études réalisées à ce jour a permis de construire une typologie de 5 familles de chemins d’impact caractéristiques de l’institut. Le présent rapport démontre la pertinence des études ex post pour permettre à un organisme finalisé de mieux connaître l’impact de ses recherches, et favoriser les échanges avec les chercheurs et les partenaires autour de cette questio

Career patterns and competences of PhDs in science and engineering

Based on a retrospective survey of science and engineering (S&E) PhDs from a UK research-based university with 7-10 years job histories and the design-based non-parametric analysing methods, this thesis drew on theories on careers, organisational knowledge and learning and labour markets to explore the interrelationship between knowledge flow and careers of science and engineering PhDs. The results showed that employment outside the conventional technical occupations is the main destination for the survey respondents. This labour market segment is not only successful at retaining its members, but is also the destination of the other career types. Furthermore, S&E PhDs in the conventional technical occupations draw quite a lot of knowledge from S&E doctoral training in their jobs, even from the subject-specific dimension of it. By contrast, members in employment outside the conventional technical occupations are less likely to perceive knowledge and skills from doctoral training to be useful in their jobs, and when they do, the emphasis is more on general analytical skills and problem solving capabilities.The results also revealed the distinctive labour market features of different S&E PhD labour market segments: the sharp contrast of the core and peripheral workers in academic/public research, the highly hybrid labour market form in employment outside the conventional technical occupations and the relatively more structured labour market features in technical positions in private sector manufacturing. Regardless of the differences, nonetheless, as a whole, organisational life is still a prominent feature of the S&E PhD labour markets. Furthermore, the extent to which fluid job mobility contributes to S&E PhDs' individual knowledge flow depends on the types of knowledge under discussion. The emerging occupations associated with the knowledge economy are characterised by high inter-organisational mobility and by an emphasis of sector-specific and general knowledge. However, even for sector-specific and general knowledge, we have demonstrated that to a certain extent, these types of knowledge and skills are sticky to organisations. Hence, S&E PhD experts and knowledge workers' careers and individual knowledge flow are not really boundaryless but moderately localised within organisations.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceESRCGBUnited Kingdo

DOCUMENTATION OF RISIS DATASETS - RISIS Patent Database

The RISIS Patent database derives from the EPO PATSTAT. The database is designed for the analysis of technological knowledge creation, using patent as a proxy. It thus focuses on ‘priority patents’

Understanding the emergence and deployment of "nano" S&T

As an introduction to the special issue on "emerging nanotechnologies", this paper puts in perspective contemporary debates and challenges about nanotechnology. It presents an overview of diverse analyses and expectations about this presumably revolutionary set of technological, scientific and industrial developments. Three main lines of argument can then be delineated: first of all, the degree of cumulativeness of science and technologies and the respective roles of newcomers and incumbents in the industrial dynamics; second the knowledge dynamics in nanotechnologies, especially the linkages by science and technology and third the role of institutions (network, geographic agglomeration and job market). It finally discusses methodologies to delineate the field of nanotechnologies and to collect data