The Geography of Scientific Collaboration

Science is increasingly defined by multidimensional collaborative networks. Despite the unprecedented growth of scientific collaboration around the globe – the collaborative turn – geography still matters for the cognitive enterprise. This book explores how geography conditions scientific collaboration and how collaboration affects the spatiality of science. This book offers a complex analysis of the spatial aspects of scientific collaboration, addressing the topic at a number of levels: individual, organizational, urban, regional, national, and international. Spatial patterns of scientific collaboration are analysed along with their determinants and consequences. By combining a vast array of approaches, concepts, and methodologies, the volume offers a comprehensive theoretical framework for the geography of scientific collaboration. The examples of scientific collaboration policy discussed in the book are taken from the European Union, the United States, and China. Through a number of case studies the authors analyse the background, development and evaluation of these policies. This book will be of interest to researchers in diverse disciplines such as regional studies, scientometrics, R&D policy, socio-economic geography and network analysis. It will also be of interest to policymakers, and to managers of research organisations

The Geography of Scientific Collaboration

Science is increasingly defined by multidimensional collaborative networks. Despite the unprecedented growth of scientific collaboration around the globe – the collaborative turn – geography still matters for the cognitive enterprise. This book explores how geography conditions scientific collaboration and how collaboration affects the spatiality of science. This book offers a complex analysis of the spatial aspects of scientific collaboration, addressing the topic at a number of levels: individual, organizational, urban, regional, national, and international. Spatial patterns of scientific collaboration are analysed along with their determinants and consequences. By combining a vast array of approaches, concepts, and methodologies, the volume offers a comprehensive theoretical framework for the geography of scientific collaboration. The examples of scientific collaboration policy discussed in the book are taken from the European Union, the United States, and China. Through a number of case studies the authors analyse the background, development and evaluation of these policies. This book will be of interest to researchers in diverse disciplines such as regional studies, scientometrics, R&D policy, socio-economic geography and network analysis. It will also be of interest to policymakers, and to managers of research organisations

Planning R&D in a post centrally-planned economy: assessing the macroeconomic effects in Poland

Half a century of centrally planned policy in the Central and Eastern European countries resulted in out-dated technologies, inefficient allocation of resources and low productivity. Following the end of communismthere was a fifteen year process of transition which ended in 2004 with eight post-communist countries join-ing the European Union (EU) of which Poland was the largest. As part of the EU these countries now face thechallenge of the common EU strategy Europe 2020, which has set the target of achieving R&D expenditureto GDP ratio (called the R&D intensity) of 3% by 2020 for the Union as a whole in an effort to increasethe competitiveness of the region. Poland, like the other post-communist countries, faces a lower target ofR&D intensity, set at 1.7%. Nevertheless, the challenge is immense, since the country is still at only half thatlevel and has little experience in developing policies to help achieve it. In this paper we tested two possiblepolicy options to achieve the target: (1) to increase government expenditures on R&D and; (2) to provide taxrelief on R&D to businesses. The method applied to assess the options is a recursive dynamic computablegeneral equilibrium (CGE) model for Poland with an explicit link between productivity and R&D stock.The results show that achieving the R&D intensity target via the use of tax relief is 2.5 times more costlyto the government budget, but it has a greater impact on the economy in terms of a higher GDP growth.Tax relief proved efficient in the short run while in the long run the government expenditure policy providesbetter value for money

The impact of air transport availability on research collaboration: A case study of four universities.

This paper analyzes the impact of air transport connectivity and accessibility on scientific collaboration. Numerous studies demonstrated that the likelihood of collaboration declines with increase in distance between potential collaborators. These works commonly use simple measures of physical distance rather than actual flight capacity and frequency. Our study addresses this limitation by focusing on the relationship between flight availability and the number of scientific co-publications. Furthermore, we distinguish two components of flight availability: (1) direct and indirect air connections between airports; and (2) distance to the nearest airport from cities and towns where authors of scientific articles have their professional affiliations. Based on Zero-inflated Negative Binomial Regression, we provide evidence that greater flight availability is associated with more frequent scientific collaboration. More flight connections (connectivity) and proximity of airport (accessibility) increase the expected number of coauthored scientific papers. Moreover, direct flights and flights with one transfer are more valuable for intensifying scientific cooperation than travels involving more connecting flights. Further, analysis of four organizational sub-datasets-Arizona State University, Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and University of Michigan-shows that the relationship between airline transport availability and scientific collaboration is not uniform, but is associated with the research profile of an institution and the characteristics of the airport that serves this institution

Regional Input-Output Studies: A Systematic Literature Review

The purpose of the paper is to provide a systematic insight into the state of the art in the regional (subnational) input-output analyses. Large and growing body of scientific literature in the field is very diverse, fragmented and challenging to comprehend mostly because it is usually published as articles, not only in the field specific journals, but also sporadically in other journals. On the other hand subnational (regional) level of the analysis is not very frequent. However, articles concerning this level are not easy to identify in a bunch of literature because the term ‘regional’ can refer to various spatial levels (country, continent, group of countries, sub-national entities). Therefore, there is a need for upto-date and comprehensive meta-analysis of the work done so far in the area of regional (sub-national) input-output analyses. The present systematic review is based on a broad search of two databases of scientific publications: Web of Science and SCOPUS. In this research we apply a Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) approach and conduct a content-coding of selected papers

REGIONAL INPUT-OUTPUT STUDIES: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract The purpose of the paper is to provide a systematic insight into the state of the art in the regional (subnational) input-output analyses. Large and growing body of scientific literature in the field is very diverse, fragmented and challenging to comprehend mostly because it is usually published as articles, not only in the field specific journals, but also sporadically in other journals. On the other hand subnational (regional) level of the analysis is not very frequent. However, articles concerning this level are not easy to identify in a bunch of literature because the term 'regional' can refer to various spatial levels (country, continent, group of countries, sub-national entities). Therefore, there is a need for upto-date and comprehensive meta-analysis of the work done so far in the area of regional (sub-national) input-output analyses. The present systematic review is based on a broad search of two databases of scientific publications: Web of Science and SCOPUS. In this research we apply a Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) approach and conduct a content-coding of selected papers

How increasing investments in R&D would contribute to development of Poland and its regions?

The paper investigates impact of several scenarios of increasing investments in R&D in Poland with use of a regional CGE model for Poland. The Europe 2020 strategy sets the target of increasing combined public and private investment in R&D to achieve a level of 3 % of R&D in EU’s GDP by 2020. Currently it is 2.1% of GDP on average in the EU, and in Poland only 0.89% of GDP. Specific target established by the EU for Poland to be achieved by year 2020 is 1.7% of GDP. So the policy is very challenging as the R&D expenditure must double in Poland in relatively short time. Yet no specific actions were planned to fulfill the requirement. Hence we simulate two scenarios of possible increase of regional shares of R&D investments in regional GRPs taking into account that regions in Poland differ significantly in their R&D shares in GDP from 0.2% to 1.38%. The main method applied in the paper is a regional CGE model for Poland called POLTERMDyn. Several scenario are analyzed and compared. The first scenario assumes that all regions increase R&D proportionally to their current shares in total R&D spending. The second scenario assumes that all regions increase their R&D share in GDP up to 1,7% by 2020, no matter what were the initial shares of R&D in their GRPs. The results show that the ‘proportional’ and ‘converging’ scenarios have similar and positive impact on Poland’s economy in terms of GDP growth and employment. They boosts several sectors of the economy in addition to R&D services, in particular: construction, accommodation and food, public administration, education and health, in particular. It is important to stress, that regional impacts differ significantly