The role of collaborative research centres in innovation systems: Structural innovations for knowledge production

Abstract

This paper concerns the diversity of actions and policies labelled as "structural innovation" in national systems of innovation and, specifically, to the changing modes of interactions between the public science and the private industry sectors. The study focuses on the emergence and diffusion of organisations encompassing a more stable and formalised environment for science-firms collaboration and knowledge transfer, like Collaborative Research Centres (CRCs). The aim is to understand how CRCs generate structural transformations within innovation systems. Employing survey data about a sample of 128 CRCs settled in Spain, activities and outcomes of the centres are analysed. Findings show that the centres tend to specialise on applied research activities, playing a role of producers of scientific and technical knowledge, instead of knowledge brokers. Therefore, and at least with reference to the case of Spain, this type of structural innovations is likely to cover a "functional hole" between diverse domains of activity, instead of covering a "structural hole" between different sectors.