Assessment of knowledge transfer and innovation of Spanish universities

Abstract

The European strategy Horizon 2020 focuses on the transition to the knowledge society. To that end, the European Commission put the universities at the centre due to their ability to connect and collaborate with other sectors, particularly the business sector. Although their efforts have been aimed at creating synergies among the sectors involved, their evaluation has been largely left aside. This study uses metadata from SCOPUS and from the Spanish Patent Office. Its aim is to assess the transfer of knowledge from the perspective of the university. For this, collaborations between universities, with companies, and with government institutions are used. The assessment is performed from the whole network generated by the Spanish universities. The results obtained show the degree of connectivity of each university, its degree of influence and its connectivity with leading institutions in terms of knowledge transfer and innovation.