Suchergebnisse

Die RIS3-Agenda der Europäischen Kommission fordert von allen mit der Allokation europäischer Mittel betrauten Gebietskörperschaften die Erstellung einer Innovationsstrategie, die einen fokussierten Einsatz der europäischen Struktur- und Investitionsfonds in einen strategischen Kontext einbettet und überprüfbare Investitionsprioritäten in jenen Feldern setzt, in denen staatliche Förderung tatsächlich einen strukturellen Beitrag zur Wettbewerbsfähigkeit leisten kann. Diese sollen nicht nur in klassischen Hightech-Industrien liegen, sondern einen Anwendungsbezug aufweisen, der mit der tatsächlichen Branchenausrichtung der Region in glaubhaftem Zusammenhang steht (Cross-Innovation- Ansatz). Diese Prämisse war in der letzten Förderperiode nicht überwiegend, aber in einzelnen Fällen auch in Deutschland in teils deutlicher Weise verletzt worden. Die Schwerpunkte zukünftiger Förderung sollen daher einerseits aus empirischen Analysen abgeleitet, andererseits aber auch mittels der Konsultation eines breiteren Kreises regionaler Akteure validiert werden. Implizite Kernzielsetzung der RIS3-Agenda ist es somit, die Effektivität und Effizienz des Einsatzes von ESIF-Mitteln zu steigern und unter haushalterischen Gesichtspunkten besser zu legitimieren.

As next to all aspects of research are becoming internationalised at a more and more rapid pace the need for the creation of transnational research infrastructures can no longer be seen as limited to certain fields of natural sciences. Against the background, new policies have been launched with the stated ambition of developing world-class research infrastructures through the creation of critical mass for scientific undertakings across the continent. Thus they seek to contribute to the establishment of a European Research Area in which the fragmentation of scientific resources can be minimised. Against this background, it was the aim of this paper to analyse whether selected policies with the aim to build capacity in this field are likely to contribute to their objective to help foster the emerging European Research Area. Based on a recent representative survey of 598 European research organisations and available data for the 6th and 7th Framework Programmes for Research, evidence was collected to address two main research questions. Firstly, we found that the four largest EU countries (Germany, France, Italy, UK) still dominate both lines of actions aimed at building or extending research infrastructures in Europe (I3 actions and design actions) with a view to budget, project co-ordination and, to a lesser degree, participation. Nonetheless, their dominance seems to subside gradually. In different respects, some smaller Member States have become better integrated in funding schemes of the 7th Framework Programme than they were under the 6th Framework Programme. Beneficiaries in that sense include Denmark, Finland, Norway and Greece. On the one hand, our findings thus illustrate that the aim to overcome fragmentation is clearly reflected in structure of the policy programmes while, on the other hand, they illustrate that a challenging task remains ahead. Secondly, we found that the structure of expenditure and participation in the related actions under both the 6th and the 7th Framework Programme does not yet match well with the factual pattern of research infrastructures in Europe. Partially, that is due to the European Framework Programme's traditional focus on (nuclear) physics and astronomy that continues to take the largest share of all related allocations of funding. Additionally, however, there is evidence of conscious priority setting in new fields such as energy research and life sciences. Finally, the structure of allocations and participation under the 7th Framework Programme has come to reflect the factual pattern of research infrastructures in Europe better than was the case under FP 6, not least due to in increased acknowledgement of the role of the social sciences. In conclusion, the European effort to build and strengthen key research infrastructures seems well on track to build new momentum although it is unlikely to overcome the persistent disparities across the continent in the nearer future.

The empirical sub-sections of this article have shown that the both production and technology oriented clusters are a very diverse and regionally embedded phenomenon. Within this context, the observed diversity of political strategies and support measures whose ultimate goal is to 'generate cluster advantages' cannot genuinely surprise, even if its remains criticized by academics (Kiese 2007; Martin/Sunley 2003).

According to the Barca report and the OECD, the place-based development approach is a new paradigm of regional policy. It underlines the necessity to distribute policy design and implementation among different policy levels in order to tailor policy measures to the specific local conditions. Place-based initiatives inherit a strong bottom-up element in public governance. Taking the innovation orientation in European cohesion policy as a starting point, it is the objective of this paper to analyse whether the recent implementation of structural and cohesion policy shows indications for place-based policy designs and governance. Germany is used as a case study, because it can be expected that in federal systems multi-level and bottom-up policy structures are already strongly evident. The major question the paper seeks to answer is whether the recent experiences from German cohesion policy formulation and implementation allow to identify starting points for the future design of European cohesion policy.

Taking the implications of the cohesion policy framework for innovation governance as a starting point, it is the objective of this paper to discuss challenges for regional policy making with regard to a policy mix that is new to regional policy makers. Based on two German regions representing convergence and competitive and employment regions it will be discussed how regional policy makers can deal with this new policy approach and what could be appropriate strategies, programmes and learning tools. What can be seen from both the Bavarian and the Saxon case study is that the two regions apply a broad mix of different innovation policy measures, supporting all innovation policy tasks with relevance to regional development. In both regions innovation policy is not a new task, but Saxony as well as Bavaria can look back to a quite long tradition in the im-plementation of this policy. Differences exist with regard to policy learning in a way that due the longer innovation policy experiences of Bavaria more sophisticated structures and activities can be found in this federal state.

Taking the most popular regional RTDI policy concepts, particularly the network para-digm (Cooke/Morgan 1993) as a starting point, it is the objective of this paper to theo-retically and empirically discuss the necessity and impact of regional or regionalised RTDI policy measures within the context of multi-level governance. Based on the pro-motional measure Netzwerk RNA-Technologien Berlin, initiated by the German Minis-try of Education and Research (BMBF), we shall discuss what kinds of specific policy measures can be undertaken in order to activate and support regionally embedded scientific-technological potentials. In addition, attention will be paid to challenges re-garding the multi-level governance of the funding measure and regional and national effects, particularly within the context of research and networks aspects. What can be seen from the case study is that the coordination of the funding measure proved to be quite challenging. Due to the long-lasting andcomplicated process of setting up the funding measure and the implicit, diverging goals and interests of the key players BMBF, Senate and industry, the resulting network is characterised by unique structural elements which are intertwined or overlap with each other in complex ways. However, due to the policy measure - which supports network activities primarily within coopera-tion projects -, the cooperation intensity of scientific institutions with companies was increased significantly, thus contributing to the goal of fostering the commercial exploitation of research results.

The shift to new forms of knowledge creation reflects a remarkable increase in the number of knowledge-intensive business service firms (KIBS). KIBS are believed to be one of the main drivers of technological change and economic progress and can be described as users, carriers and sources of innovation (Miles et al. 1995). In addi-tion to macroeconomic implications, newly founded KIBS are considered to play an important role within regional production and innovation systems. As firm founders in early stages of their firms' development mostly draw on regional resources and as KIBS acquire knowledge in the course of the interactive process that takes place when the service is provided, an intense interdependency between the regional economic, technological and institutional set-up and newly founded KIBS can be supposed. Within these processes of inter-relationship, proximity between the different actors of the particular innovation and production system clearly matters.However, as entrepreneurship research has hardly ever investigated KIBS and re-search into the role of KIBS in processes of regional change has just begun, this con-tribution analyses the inter-relationships between KIBS foundations and actors within the respective innovation and production system. In a qualitative and conceptual way, in-depth studies of three German metropolitan regions with regard to the foundation of KIBS will be outlined. The results indicate that the necessity to adapt regional structures goes hand in hand with an exploitation of regional knowledge and the crea-tion of bridging institutions in the shape of KIBS foundations.

Im Zentrum der vorliegenden Studie steht die Frage, welche Strategien und Maßnahmen Unternehmen ergreifen, um ihre Innovationsfähigkeit im Kontext sich globalisierender Märkte zu sichern und auszubauen. Zu beobachten ist, dass die Vertiefung der internationalen Arbeitsteilung den unternehmerischen Innovationsprozess nachhaltig verändert. Dies ist beispielsweise im Zusammenhang mit der Internationalisierung von Forschungs- und Innovationsaktivitäten zu konstatieren, aber auch in Form organisatorischer Veränderungen, Weiterbildungsmaßnahmen, strategischer Allianzen oder sogar der verstärkten Hinwendung zur Aktivierung von Potenzialen in der eigenen Region. Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen, dass die Sicherung der unternehmerischen Innovationsfähigkeit komplexe Anforderungen an die Unternehmen selbst, aber auch an die nationale/regionale Wirtschafts-, Standort-, Forschungs- und Bildungspolitik stellt. Generell gilt, dass Forschung und Entwicklung, Innovation und Qualifikation sowie intelligentes Innovations- und Schnittstellenmanagement herausragende Funktionen im unternehmerischen Innovationsprozess einnehmen und die zukünftige Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der Unternehmen und damit ganzer Standorte wesentlich beeinflussen. Die Politik hat hierfür günstige Rahmenbedingungen zu schaffen. Für den IHK-Bezirk Karlsruhe haben die aufgeworfenen Fragen besondere Relevanz, da sich die regionale Wirtschaft durch umfangreiche Innovationsaktivitäten auszeichnet und zahlreiche national und international wettbewerbsfähige Unternehmen für Einkommen und Beschäftigung sorgen. Die Ergebnisse sind damit stellvertretend für eine ganze Reihe von Regionen und Standorten, deren Wettbewerbsfähigkeit auf Innovationen und Technologieführerschaft beruht.

Over the course of the last decade, increasing political emphasis has been placed on the 'third role' of universities and universities of applied sciences in German higher education policy, i.e. to these institutions socio-economic contribution their regional environment. Against this background it is the first central aim of this study to take account of the existing regional activities of higher education institutions in Germany and to establish whether any effects of regional policymakers' and university management efforts to support such activities are already felt at the level of the individual researcher. Based on survey data, we find that a large array of decentralised projects is being performed by individual academics for multiple reasons, but also that evidence of effective centralised incentive-setting for such activities remains limited. Nonetheless, universities have undoubtedly become integrated into strategic considerations of regional co-operation to a stronger degree, as evidenced by a number of publicly supported programmes and the long time implicit 'third role' of universities of applied sciences. Consequently, the second main aim of the paper is to illustrate how such strategic approaches could be designed against the background of the concrete regional demand of the industrial sector in a case study region. With a view to the example of Upper Palatinate in Bavaria, our paper demonstrates how the formerly strict separation of missions and tasks between universities and universities of applied sciences has resulted in a certain structural fragmentation of competences that hinders the development of a substantial third role in the region. Additionally, it suggests some tentative approaches how this situation could be overcome by an increased co-operation between formerly quite separate institutions.