پروژه های مشترک "تحقیق و توسعه": تجارب در زمینه سیاست های فن آوری اروپا

Joint R&D projects have emerged as a significant model for the development of research and technological activities. Our study examines, through an exploratory analysis, the typology of joint R&D projects and the characteristics of R&D networks in which the projects are developed. In addition, the interrelation between the R&D projects in the context of European Technology Policy is analysed. Findings from survey data collected on joint R&D projects carried out in the context of European Framework Programmes indicate that three groups of R&D projects can be identified (invention, innovation and diffusion projects), and that each of these projects is managed inside the R&D network with a different degree of structuring and external opening. The analysis of interrelations between R&D projects also shows a low, non-linear and non-progressive interrelation. This conclusion is an important question to bear in mind in the design of scientific and technological policies.

Research and development (R&D) collaboration has been widely promoted lasting recent years as a means for improving industrial competitiveness, reducing technological gaps among countries and regions, strengthening the scientific base of the system through the establishment of close relationships among economic actors, and influencing technical change. The EU Framework Programmes funded by the European Commission have played and important role in setting favourable conditions for the enlargement of R&D co-operation by the development of European joint projects [1]. The budget of Framework Programmes (see Table 1) covered all the research and technological development activities during the reference period.

This paper is one of the few empirical studies that explores joint R&D projects at a European level and provides some empirical evidence to highlight the management of technological projects in terms of activities, results, sequence of process and participating agents. It shows the analysis of R&D projects from an intermediate level, between the macro approach (National Innovation Systems) and the micro approach (R&D networks) that are often presented as mutually independent.