Understanding the Connection between Science and Innovation – Empirical Studies of Processes, Relationships and Policy

• Fatih Celebioglu – Philipps University-Marburg – celebiol@staff.uni-marburg.de
• Thomas Brenner – Philipps University-Marburg

In recent years, research on the relationship between science and innovation has increased remarkably. Useful studies have been done on issues such as how to support scientific processes and the transfer of the obtained knowledge, what determines the performance of public and private research, what are the motives and incentives within public institutions for transfer activities, what kind of transfer channels exist, and what are the regional effects of scientific activities on innovation output.

We think that this research has not come to an end and more insights are needed. Scientific knowledge and its implementation via innovations is a strong driver of growth and, therefore, of high political interest. Regional innovation policy has become an important policy field in the recent decades and various different policy approaches have been developed. More scientific insights on this as well as on the underlying mechanisms would be helpful for policy makers.

This special session aims to continue this line of research and to explore the connection between science and innovation in more detail by focusing on processes, relationships and policy. In particular, we welcome submissions that deal with, but are not necessarily constrained to, the following:

• The influence of the type and scope of scientific incentives on the regional effects of public research
• The role of distance for collaboration or knowledge transfer between public and private research
• The ways of interaction between public and private research
• The regional impact of scientific activity on innovation output and vice versa
• The role of policy in supporting the interaction between science and private research
• The impact of the interaction between public and private research on regional economic growth?
• The relevance of clusters for the interaction between science and innovation