On the initiative of the USSR State Committee for Science and Technology (now the Ministry of Science, Higher Education and Technology Policy of the Russian Federation), the Russian Academy of Sciences, IIASA, together with the Central Economic and Mathematical Institute (CEMI) and the International Center for Research into Economic Transformation (ICRET), an international research Project under the title "R&D Management in the Transition to a Market Economy" was created in 1991. The main goals of the Project include the study of international experiences of R&D management and elaboration of proposals on the reorganization of science and technology development management in the former centrally planned countries, and primarily in Russia. The proposed research can be divided according to three main themes: (i) to study conditions, tendencies and problems of the reorganization of the scientific and industrial complex in the state and private sector during the economic transition period; (ii) to study international experience of industrial R&D management during the transition to a market economy; (iii) to carry out scenarios of R&D reorganization and restructuring in Russia and other post-communist countries.
During the first year of the Project, several studies have been completed. The most important of them were dealing with intellectual property rights issues; elaboration of proposals on the reorganization process; research institutes and laboratories behavior under the conditions of economic reform.
By now, the Project organized two international conferences: "Research and Development Management in the Transition to a Market Economy" (Moscow, July 1991); and "Industrial R&D Management in the Transition to a Market Economy" (Laxenburg, Austria, March 1992); as well as a Workshop on Patent Legislation and Protection of Intellectual Property (New Haven, USA, February 1992).
This book includes papers, presented at these three meetings, which summarize the results of studies carried out within the Project
