El papel de los centros de investigación colaborativa en los sistemas de innovación: innovaciones estructurales para la producción de conocimiento

Sandro Giachi

doi:10.22325/fes/res.2019.29

Authors

Sandro Giachi Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22325/fes/res.2019.29

Keywords:

knowledge transfer, national innovation system, public-private collaboration, structural holes, university-firms

Abstract

This paper concerns the diversity of actions and policies labelled as “structural innovation” in national systems of innovation and, specifically, to the changing modes of interactions between the public science and the private industry sectors. The study focuses on the emergence and diffusion of organisations encompassing a more stable and formalised environment for science-firms collaboration and knowledge transfer, like Collaborative Research Centres (CRCs). The aim is to understand how CRCs generate structural transformations within innovation systems. Employing survey data about a sample of 128 CRCs settled in Spain, activities and outcomes of the centres are analysed. Findings show that the centres tend to specialise on applied research activities, playing a role of producers of scientific and technical knowledge, instead of knowledge brokers. Therefore, and at least with reference to the case of Spain, this type of structural innovations is likely to cover a “functional hole” between diverse domains of activity, instead of covering a “structural hole” between different sectors.

Author Biography

Sandro Giachi , Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex

Sandro Giachi es investigador en la Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) de la Universidad de Sussex, Reino Unido. Doctor en Sociología por la Universidad de Málaga y graduado en Estadística y Metodología de las Ciencias Sociales por la Universidad de Firenze (Italia). Ha colaborado en España en dos proyectos financiados por el Plan Nacional de I+D y ha sido becario FPI en el IESA-CSIC. Su ámbito de investigación abarca las políticas de innovación y las relaciones entre ciencia, industria y sociedad, en el cual desarrolló igualmente su tesis doctoral.

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