Suchergebnisse

This paper borrows analytical tools from the study of public policy, applying them to issues surrounding the development of universities' 'Third Mission' indicators. The 'Third Mission' refers to all activities concerned with the generation, use, application and exploitation of knowledge and other university capabilities outside academic environments. The paper analyses the generation and management of Third Mission indicators as an example of policy implementation. Using the cases of the UK and Spain, it finds a high level of ambiguity in the definition of policy goals accompanied by conflict among policy stakeholders. In these cases, policy analysts have suggested that policy implementation becomes 'symbolic', and depends on the strength of local stakeholder coalitions. We find that the development of Third Mission indicators fits this model, and conclude by discussing the policy implications of this finding ; The authors acknowledge the financial support received from the Spanish National R&D Plan (Project ref.: SEJ2005-05923/EDUC). ; Peer reviewed

Estudios recientes señalan la importancia de las fuentes externas de conocimiento como estrategia para innovar. La evidencia empírica se fundamenta en encuestas nacionales y en industrias específicas. El presente estudio contribuye al análisis de las estrategias de incorporación de conocimiento externo mediante un caso de estudio y en un momento concreto: el sector arqueológico español y su emergencia como nueva actividad económica. Los resultados muestran que las fuentes de conocimiento externo implican diversos mecanismos, agentes y dos estrategias principalmente: cooperar y adquirir conocimiento. En un sector en expansión, basado en el conocimiento, que surge en un contexto incierto y cuyas fuentes de conocimiento están dispersas, el foco de la innovación puede encontrarse en las estrategias de búsqueda de conocimiento externo -cooperación y adquisición-, más que en fuentes internas.

Titulo pdf: "The role of informal collaborations in the social sciences and humanities". ; The analysis of how research contributes to society typically focuses on the study of those transactions that are mediated through formal legal instruments (research contracts, patent licensing and the creation of companies). Research has shown, however, that informal means of technology transfer are also important. This paper explores the importance of informal collaborations and provides evidence of the extent to which informal collaborations between researchers and non-academic partners take place informally in the social sciences and humanities (SSH). Data is obtained from two studies on knowledge exchange involving researchers working in the SSH area of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research. We show that informal collaborations not officially recorded by the organisation are much more common than formal agreements and that many collaborations remain informal over time. We explore the causes of such prevalence of informality and discuss its policy implications. ; This work was partially supported by grants from the Spanish National R&D Plan [Ref.: SEJ2005-24033-E], the Valencian Regional Government [Ref.: GV06/225] and by the European Commission 7th Framework Programme (Social Impact Assessment Methods for research and funding instruments through the study of Productive Interactions between science and society - SIAMPI). The Ministry of Education funded the PhD research fellowship of Julia Olmos Peñuela through the F.P.U program [AP2007- 01850]. ; Peer Reviewed

A range of governmental and institutional scientific policies have emerged in recent decades to promote the dissemination of scientific knowledge throughout society. This article explores the involvement of researchers in various types of dissemination and identifies practices and differences among scientific fields. The study analyses a large sample of researchers from eight scientific fields of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), who were surveyed about their participation in diverse dissemination activities. Two indicators related to individual and institutional dissemination activities were constructed from a factor analysis. The ANOVA test indicates different dissemination patterns between researchers in social sciences and humanities and those from experimental science fields, though the difference is not very marked. These results may be of interest for the future focus of actions to promote scientific dissemination. ; En las últimas décadas se han comenzado a desarrollar políticas gubernamentales e institucionales para la promoción de la divulgación del conocimiento científico. Este artículo explora la implicación de los investigadores en diversos tipos de actividades de divulgación, para identificar si se producen diferencias entre las diferentes áreas científicas. El estudio analiza una muestra amplia de investigadores pertenecientes a las ocho áreas científicas del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), a los que se ha realizado una encuesta sobre su participación en distintas actividades de divulgación. Mediante un análisis factorial se han construido dos indicadores que agrupan, respectivamente, las actividades de divulgación de carácter individual e institucional. Un contraste ANOVA permite identificar diferencias entre investigadores de ciencias humanas y sociales e investigadores de las ciencias experimentales, pero no muy acusadas. Los resultados pueden ser de interés para el enfoque futuro de las acciones de fomento de la divulgación de la ciencia.

Peer Reviewed ; The aim of this research is to achieve a better understanding of the processes underlying knowledge transfer (KT) in social sciences and humanities (SSH). The paper addresses: first, the extent of SSH research groups' engagement in KT and the formal KT activities used to interact with non-academic communities; and second, how the characteristics of research groups may influence engagement in various types of KT. The empirical analysis is at research group level using data derived from a questionnaire of SSH research groups belonging to the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). We find that KT activities are based on relational rather than commercial activities. The most frequent relational activities in which SSH research groups engage are consultancy and contract research. We find also that the characteristics of research groups (e.g. size and multidisciplinarity) and individuals (e.g. academic status and star scientist) are associated with involvement in KT activities and that a deliberate focus on the societal impacts and relevance of the research conducted is strongly related to active engagement of research groups in all the modes of KT considered in this study. From a managerial perspective, our findings suggest that measures promoting a focus on the societal impact of research could enhance research groups' engagement in KT activities. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. The study benefited from financial support from the Spanish National R&D Plan (Ref.: SEJ2005-24033-E) and the Valencian Regional Government (Ref.: GV06/225). This research is framed within a broader investigation conducted by Julia Olmos Peñuela within her PhD, and supported by a fellowship funded by the Ministry of Education through the F.P.U program [AP2007-01850].

Este es un artículo de acceso abierto distribuido bajo los términos de la licencia Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (by-nc) Spain 3.0. ; [ES]: En las últimas décadas se han comenzado a desarrollar políticas gubernamentales e institucionales para la promoción de la divulgación del conocimiento científico. Este artículo explora la implicación de los investigadores en diversos tipos de actividades de divulgación, para identificar si se producen diferencias entre las diferentes áreas científicas. El estudio analiza una muestra amplia de investigadores pertenecientes a las ocho áreas científicas del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), a los que se ha realizado una encuesta sobre su participación en distintas actividades de divulgación. Mediante un análisis factorial se han construido dos indicadores que agrupan, respectivamente, las actividades de divulgación de carácter individual e institucional. Un contraste ANOVA permite identificar diferencias entre investigadores de ciencias humanas y sociales e investigadores de las ciencias experimentales, pero no muy acusadas. Los resultados pueden ser de interés para el enfoque futuro de las acciones de fomento de la divulgación de la ciencia. ; [EN]: A range of governmental and institutional scientific policies have emerged in recent decades to promote the dissemination of scientific knowledge throughout society. This article explores the involvement of researchers in various types of dissemination and identifies practices and differences among scientific fields. The study analyses a large sample of researchers from eight scientific fields of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), who were surveyed about their participation in diverse dissemination activities. Two indicators related to individual and institutional dissemination activities were constructed from a factor analysis. The ANOVA test indicates different dissemination patterns between researchers in social sciences and humanities and those from experimental science fields, though the difference is not very marked. These results may be of interest for the future focus of actions to promote scientific dissemination. ; Peer reviewed

The aim of this research is to achieve a better understanding of the processes underlying knowledge transfer (KT) in social sciences and humanities (SSH). The paper addresses: first, the extent of SSH research groups' engagement in KT and the formal KT activities used to interact with non-academic communities; and second, how the characteristics of research groups may influence engagement in various types of KT. The empirical analysis is at research group level using data derived from a questionnaire of SSH research groups belonging to the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). We find that KT activities are based on relational rather than commercial activities. The most frequent relational activities in which SSH research groups engage are consultancy and contract research. We find also that the characteristics of research groups (e.g. size and multidisciplinarity) and individuals (e.g. academic status and star scientist) are associated with involvement in KT activities and that a deliberate focus on the societal impacts and relevance of the research conducted is strongly related to active engagement of research groups in all the modes of KT considered in this study. From a managerial perspective, our findings suggest that measures promoting a focus on the societal impact of research could enhance research groups' engagement in KT activities. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. ; The study benefited from financial support from the Spanish National R&D Plan (Ref.: SEJ2005-24033-E) and the Valencian Regional Government (Ref.: GV06/225). This research is framed within a broader investigation conducted by Julia Olmos Peñuela within her PhD, and supported by a fellowship funded by the Ministry of Education through the F.P.U program [AP2007-01850]. ; Peer Reviewed

Trabajo presentado a la DIME-DRUID Academy Winter Conference: "Economics and Management of Innovation, Technology and Organizations", celebrada en Aalborg (Dinamarca) del 20 al 22 de enero de 2011. ; In the current society, universities and research centers have acquired an important role as agents responsible for knowledge transfer (KT) to the non-academic environment (OCDE 1996). The different ways in which these collaborations take place have been the subject of many conceptual (Molas-Gallart et al. 2002) and empirical studies (D'Este and Patel 2007; Landry et al. 2007) in recent years. The aim of this exploratory study paper is to contribute to KT literature from an area of study generally neglected, humanities and social sciences (HSS), and from a unit analysis perspective that have received less attention: the research group. Thus, the questions addressed in this study are: what are the main activities of KT used by HSS research groups to collaborate with non-academic agents? Do group characteristics or group' leader profile influence the group' engagement in a specific knowledge transfer activity? Data for this study has been gathered through questionnaires, interviews and databases for a sample made up of 79 research groups (80% of the population) belonging to the HSS area of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). Descriptive and multivariate analyses have been conducted. Results indicate that HSS research groups are very active in some KT activities such as technical advice, consultancy and contract research, whereas their involvement in personal mobility activities is low. Logistic regression analysis shows that the likelihood that research groups engage in any KT activities is not explained by the same factors. However, we obtain evidence showing that there is a common variable positively related with the engagement of HSS research groups for almost all the different activities analyzed: the focus on the social utility of the research. ; The study benefited from financial support from the Spanish National R&D Plan (Ref.: SEJ2005-24033-E) and the Valencian Regional Government (Ref.: GV06/225). ; Peer reviewed