The paper explores the possible consequences for academic research of increased patenting in European universities. It underlines that most of the policy literature refers to the advantages of university patenting without balancing them against the costs or the risks involved in the activities....

This paper focuses on university inventors mobility in the EU countries. It is the first quantitative assessment of this phenomenon and is the basis for a set of econometric models that try to explain how different factors affect the mobility of academics and their choices: to stay, to move to...

There is increasing recognition in the UK and other OECD countries of the importance of scientific research in providing the foundations for both innovation and competitiveness. This has resulted in increased public funding for research in the UK and elsewhere. At the same time, there is a lack...

Along with all other defence-related issues, defence research is a controversial area for EU action. Until recently, defence issues have not figured prominently among EU policy discussions and defence research has played little, if any, role in European technology policy. Although the Framework...

Recent science-policy debates have emphasised a growing role for science in helping to address some of society's most pressing challenges such as global environmental change, caring for the needs of ageing populations, and competitiveness in a global age. Other 'relevance' pressures include...

Progress in our understanding of the role of knowledge in the economy, based on Nelson and Winter's book published in 1982, has been mixed. It has been greatest when their concepts have been enriched by empirical evidence, often coming from outside evolutionary economics. It has been least when...

This paper explains the success and failure of two technologies that generate electricity from fossil fuels. Both the Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) and fluidised bed boiler burn fossil fuels more cleanly than more traditional technologies. Whereas the CCGT has been used for an increasing...