Universities in S&T and national systems of innovation

Industrialised societies, and especially energy and transport systems, are addicted to fossil fuels. The emergence and shape of these systems is inextricably linked to the exploitation of fossil resources such as coal, oil and gas. Apart from local and regional environmental problems, carbon emissions through fossil fuel burning have created the problem of human-induced global warming. The nature of the global warming problem is unprecedented: it threatens fundamental aspects of ecosystems and society in decades to come. The required response will be unprecedented as well: one element is that it demands fundamental transformation of existing systems of production and consumption away from its carbon base; another element is that it demands alternative forms of governance stretching from the local to the global.

This book focuses on the electricity sector as a key system in the change towards a carbon-lean and sustainable society.  The main purpose is to gain understanding in the way the interaction between technological and institutional changes may offset processes towards systems change, and the way these processes may be directed towards sustainability. The focus is on explaining relative success and failure of alternative practices and paths in the Dutch electricity system. This is done against the backdrop of the existing sociotechnical system for electricity and its established modes of production, coordination, and provision,  and in relation to broader institutional arrangements for knowledge generation, economic exchange, policy and regulation, and societal legitimacy. Two relative successful paths are reviewed in depth: decentral cogeneration and green electricity. Both cases point at the importance of interlocking of changes in institutional arrangements in the electricity sector and broader political and societal structures to create the foundation for the alternative practices. Momentum was gained as a range of actor groups became mobilised along a newly emerging institutional logics. The cases also underlined the difficulty to maintain these logics on a sustainable path involving fundamental change of systems of production and consumption. A final chapter draws lessons for transition policy.

The purpose of this article is to investigate effective reformism: strategies that innovation networks deploy to create changes in their environment in order to establish a more conducive context for the realization and durable embedding of their innovation projects. Using a case study approach, effective reformism efforts are analyzed in a technological innovation trajectory related to the implementation of a new poultry husbandry system and an organizational innovation trajectory concerning new ways of co-operation among individual farms to establish economies of scale. The findings reinforce the idea, emerging from a complexity perspective on agricultural innovation systems, that interaction between innovation networks and their environment is only steerable to a limited extent. Nonetheless, innovation networks can enhance effective reformism by creating tangible visions that serve as vehicles to create understanding about the innovation and mobilize support for it, and by employing several kinds of boundary spanning individuals that are able to forge effective connections between innovation networks and their environment. Because innovation networks can only partially influence their institutional environment, and because unintended consequences of actions and random events influence the course of the innovation process, innovation network actors need to continuously re-interpret the contexts in which they move. This constant reflection by the innovating actors on their position vis-à-vis their environment needs to be supported by dedicated facilitators and monitoring and evaluation methods aimed at system learning. This implies that agricultural innovation policies should, instead of aiming to fully plan and control innovation, foster the emergence of such flexible support instruments that enable adaptive innovation management.

The Kenya Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy regime is underpinned by the assumption that universities and
public research institutes (PRIs) should generate knowledge and technologies for eventual uptake and commercialization
by the private sector. This assumption is informed by the cooperative technology paradigm, which in its broadest sense
is seen as a set of values emphasizing on the cooperation amongst various actors notably, government, universities and
the private sector. It is largely assumed that knowledge, technologies and innovations are generated at the universities
and/or research institutes who then transfer them to the private sector and/or industry, which then absorbs and turns
it into products and services that drive the economy. This basic assumption – universities/PRIs make, industry takes
– is dependent on the suitability of the universities/PRIs to the task of generating such knowledge, technologies and
innovations and the existence of mechanisms for sharing/transferring it with the private sector.
This study applies a mixture of methods including policy review, trend analysis of industrial property (IP) rights database
held by the Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI), institutional assessments and interviews to interrogate the role
of universities and public research institutes as progenitors of technology and innovation in Kenya. The fi ndings show
that contrary to the popular belief that universities and public research institutes develop technologies and innovations,
which in turn the private sector takes for commercialization, the private sector (companies and individuals) seem to
have out-performed the universities and public research institutes both in the fi ling and obtaining IP grants in all the
categories considered under the study i.e. patents, utility models and industrial designs.
The study however, shows that universities and public research institutes have embraced and are taking steps towards
achieving the third mission. This is evidenced by the changes in their governance structures, the improvement in the
intellectual property rights regime such as establishment of institutional IP policies and creation of intellectual property
management offi ces/technology transfer offi cers and the establishment of infrastructure to support innovation and
entrepreneurship including incubation centres and science parks.
The study recommends the need to: (i) harmonize policies and practices that encourage open access and those that
promote commercialization of research outputs (ii) introduce competitive ranking and performance-based funding
model to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship in universities and public research institutes and (iii) enhance
support for entrepreneurial partnerships between universities and local businesses.

Among the most pressing energy and environmental strategic challenges today is to identify and deploy viable alternatives to fossil-fuel-based energy systems  The barriers to deployment are systematic, leading to a state of affairs described as ‘carbon lock-in’ (Unruh
2000; Neuhoff 2007). Simply stated, even if alternative energy systems are cost-competitive in theory, the prime movers that control their diffusion throughout society –
for example, conversion and distribution infrastructure; financing mechanisms; skilled labour force; attitudes toward particular kinds of energy production activities and energy services – exhibit a preference for incumbent carbon-intensive fossil energy resources. Carbon lock-in represents path dependencies within energy systems including sunk-cost in prevailing infrastructure and entrenched political interests along with positively reinforcing relationships with broader system dynamics, from global financial logics that continue to monetise unburned carbon through energy
futures contracts to our everyday practices and expectations about mobility, comfort, and overall
well-being that underpin regular visits to the gasoline station. All of this is to say that energy systems are sociotechnical in nature, characterised by deep and often subtle interdependencies between technological, social, political-economic, and cultural processes which operate across the energy supply chain and at all scales of energy system operation (Miller, Richter, and O’Leary 2015).

Universities are increasingly pressurized to respond to external imperatives and demands, while, at the same time, being expected to enhance both their efficiency and accountability. This is leading to the local adoption of key, structural and cultural features associated with the model or global script of the entrepreneurial university. This chapter undertakes a critical analysis of the premises associated with the latter model, and provides new insights on the sustainability of the “entrepreneurial turn in higher education” against the backdrop of the challenges facing European universities.

In the era of globalization, innovation development became a crucial factor for economic success of any country. Kazakhstan is actively pursuing its industrial and innovation development strategy but the current policy does not lead to the targeted results. The paper looks at the innovation infrastructure as a part of Kazakhstan National Innovation System. The emphasis is made on the examination of innovation infrastructure elements. The study is mostly drawn on the analysis of existent literature, legislative documentation, telephone interview and expectations and experiences of the author. The findings reveal that the whole National Innovation System of Kazakhstan and, in particular, innovation infrastructure lacks an integrated approach. Universities should be assigned a greater role in the innovation infrastructure. It is offered to increase collaboration between universities and innovative SMEs through compulsory partnership agreements. Policy makers should revise the strategies, programs, and legal system to promote innovation activities and make the spirit and culture of innovations penetrate the nation. The paper serves as a thinking tool for the reappraisal of the effectiveness and efficiency of current innovation policy.

In this paper, I have used the systems of innovation approach to investigate the challenges faced by latecomer countries to catch-up in the development of an emerging technology like fuel cells. A comparative study between Malaysia and Singapore reveals that higher development of the fuel cell innovation system can be attributed to three institutional factors: • presence of primary actors to align activities • synergy between complementary policies • openness to internationalisation activities. It is argued that such factors are essential for providing a conducive environment to address specific characteristics of the 'emerging phase' of fuel cell technology.

The delegation of authority in research funding to multi-actor networks that include users is seen as a way to make research more responsive to users’ needs. This paper analyzes multi-actor networks for the planning and execution of agricultural research in The Netherlands. It shows that delegation of authority to networks also generates several tensions, and requires substantial role adjustments and institutional learning for the actors involved (government, researchers, intermediaries such as research councils, and user groups) in order to effectively operate in the network. The paper indicates that the
principal–agent perspective often used for analyzing the science policy relationship can be a useful tool for analyzing the multilateral relationships in networks, but needs to be complemented by theories that better capture the notion of co production in such ‘webs of cross-cutting ties’.

This chapter presents and discusses two cases of regional upgrading involving public-run universities in two Northern European countries, Norway and the Netherlands. More specifically, it illuminates how academic groups associated with the field of medicine took pro-active steps to establish and further develop regional coalitions which, over time, have resulted in situated learning. The empirical findings suggest possible avenues for countries in Southern Europe. Yet, in so doing, the authors warn against the shortcomings associated with policy transfers when contextual circumstances (macro, meso and micro levels) are not taken into careful consideration.

This chapter aims to provide an overview of the relation between university, national research, and innovation in Argentina from a historical perspective. As an emerging country, the relation between industry and the production of knowledge is relatively weak. Research and innovation efforts have historically been achieved through national policies; however, these efforts were largely interrupted by de facto governments and economic crises. This chapter addresses some basic R&D indicators and also offers a review of the process that has led to the current institutionalization of the country's scientific and innovation systems. The role of the university in these relations is further examined. Key features of the Argentine higher education system are described, such as high enrollment and low graduation rates, the creation of new universities, and the large proportion of part-time teachers. Finally, some conclusions are raised regarding the importance of innovation as an imperative of R&D policies and university research in light of the insufficient dynamism of the industry and the weak incentives to foster a close relation between knowledge production and the development of the country.

This research, preliminary shown in this article, approach to a
proposed discussion around the integration of the national science,
technology and innovation system (NSTIS) and the national intellectual
property system (NIPS) with the main objective to construe a national
science, technology, innovation and intellectual property system
(NSTIIPS). The research emerges from the constitutionalization
process of science, technology and innovation in Venezuela, since
1999; the approval of the Science, Technology and Innovation Law,
which established a NSTIS in 2001; and the existence of some
institutions involved with the protection and enforcement of intellectual
property rights integrated in a non formal NIPS, where not perceived as
a formal system, but its incidence brings about the integration with
NSTIS, to finally create a NSTIIPS.

The two time-honoured tasks of universities are teaching and research which have long provided society with specific skills and new knowledge and ideas. Expectations have increased exponentially and demands are originating from a much wider range of stakeholders. Universities are now given progressively more important roles in economic expansion, social development, better forms of political organization and governance, plus providing education for more students, and developing and transferring technology to industry. The capacity of universities to respond is insufficient, in both the developed and developing worlds. New models to guide the evolution of universities include the triple helix, the creation of entrepreneurial or specialized universities, large-scale excellence-driven environments or the concept of developmental universities. Most of these ultimately suggest that the universities move towards technology-oriented third missions, thus a closer interaction with enterprises. This special issue of Science and Public Policy explores such issues in 12 countries.