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The paper seeks to provide an insider's view into the implementation of goals set by the European Commission for socio-economic research. By analysing project coordinators' responses to questionnaires (n=88), several aspects of the emergence of a European social science research community are examined. Focus is placed on three 'European Added Values', defined within two subsequent calls for research proposals and funding opportunities: framework programmes 4 and 5 (1994-1998, and 1998-2002 accordingly). These 'Added Values' will set the expected features of European-funded research projects, and will include: (1) transnationality - the involvement of researchers from a variety of EU states; (2) applied research - the potential implementation of outcomes in socioeconomic policy; and (3) interdisciplinarity - the integration and collaboration of different disciplinary perspectives. These 'ideals' were tested against reports as to the reality of the research practices, and found to have a significant compatibility, as well as several discrepancies, with the objectives set out by the EU research committee. This paper allows for an understanding of the dynamics of European research consortia, and the factors involved in the success or failure in attaining the overarching goals of the EU Commission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this first survey paper is to improve the theory of innovation systems from the perspective of the ‘Knowledge Infrastructure’ with its wealth of public and private agents, including research and technology organizations, universities and consultancies. It is argued that analysing these institutions as part of the knowledge infrastructure will significantly further the theory of multi-agent innovation dynamics within innovation systems. The paper considers the evolution of innovation dynamics over the last 30 years and focuses on the contributions of the EU RTD Framework Programmes on innovation theory. It highlights the role of new types of agents, new kinds of organizational, institutional and cultural innovation as well as the process character of innovation dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the issue of scientific mobility within the European Research Area (ERA) and its impact on both the regions concerned and the individual scientists. It identifies a fundamental tension implicit within the ERA strategy between regional equality or ‘balanced growth’ on the one hand, and individual equity on the other. Drawing on the findings of a series of recent research projects,1 and with a particular focus on an impact assessment of the European Commission's flagship scientific mobility scheme (the Marie Curie Fellowship Scheme), it considers the nature of scientific mobility in the EU context and the quality of flows. These findings are set within the wider literature around highly skilled migration (HSM) and brain drain/circulation which identifies a number of key variables shaping the impact of mobility: namely the direction and temporal characteristics of flows and their ‘quality’ in terms of who is moving. It also considers the relationship between HSM and transfers of knowledge. Although knowledge is embedded in individual scientists—and, to that extent, moves with them—the process of knowledge transfer takes place in a variety of ways reflecting not only scientists’ employment location but also the quality and extent of their networks and connections. The paper cautions against simplistic interpretations of statistics based on the volume and geography of migration flows. Whilst such findings raise important questions they are not constitutive of ‘brain drain’ as such. The processes and impacts of HSM defy such simple conclusions and demand a more detailed analysis of the factors shaping migration (and return) and the relationship between these and transfers of knowledge. The paper also raises critical questions about the balance between European interests (and the economic ‘trickle down’ that derives from these to Member States) and the specific concerns in terms of the science base of individual Member States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the possibility of establishing a public space of deliberation concerning transport policy. It deals with the question of whether it is possible to envisage instances of concertation that defect conflict. Based mostly on French experience with public inquiries on transport infrastructure, it discusses the relevance and applicability of the sociology of collective action, as well as theories of deliberative democracy. The paper's main argument is that concertation does not occur in a vacuum but is instead structured by power relations. It is, therefore, first and foremost an opportunity to express dissatisfaction and frustration. At the same time, public debate represents--perhaps for the same reason--an opportunity to criticize forms of social domination. It thus may give rise to citizen mobilization rather than help contain it, as is often naively expected by its promoters within the public policy administration. Conflict is thus always the actual subject of public debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Culture' and 'change' are not words typically yoked together in social science. Indeed, the whole point of explanatory recourse to culture is to account for permanencies. Nonetheless, subject to certain conceptual precautions, middle range cultural analysis can work in conjunction with mainstream political science to clarify processes of policy change. The paper illustrates this by focusing on the case of European research policies and practices. After presenting a conceptual framework designed to bring together cultural analysis and policy science, the paper elaborates, on the basis of the framework, a theoretical scheme for the analysis of research policy. It then reports on some empirical findings from recent research and assesses the extent to which they validate the conceptual and theoretical framework. Finally, the paper offers some conclusions about the scale and innovative nature of policy change in contemporary European polities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses two main questions. First, is it appropriate to talk of the internationalization of EU research policies, and if so in which sense? Secondly, in so far as elements of internationalization are observable, how can this be explained? After summarizing the objectives, conceptual framework and hypotheses of the research conducted in the INNOCULT project, from which this paper is drawn, we consider the various dimensions of internationalization as an issue for policy analysis: the language of internationalization, as it emerges from documentary sources and expert interviews; the broader context of trends in European research policies, with particular emphasis on the emergence of what we call for these puporses a 'governance' model of state intervention; and the prospective dynamics of internationalization in its relation to research policy, in light of recent trends and emerging issues. Our conclusions qualify the nature of 'innovation' in contemporary European research policies, in light of the structural pressures that shape them, by pointing to its largely unplanned and adaptive character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In commissioned research, the aim of researchers is to generate work that influences the policy development process and is useful to policy-makers. The choice of research approach for projects commissioned by policy-makers has important implications for both these areas. This paper is a reflexive account of the authors' experiences in running a commissioned research project and explores how the decision to adopt a participatory approach to commissioned research can impact on the relationship between researchers, participants and policy-makers and how, in turn, this may affect the project's potential impact on policy creation and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the formal policy-making process in Northern Ireland and the use of qualitative research. The multi-level nature of governance is explained with the division between devolved and non-devolved powers and the respective roles of the Northern Ireland Government and the UK Government as well as the different levels of policy-making within the Northern Ireland system of governance. Institutions for policy-making set up in 1999, following the Good Friday Agreement are based on a form of consociationalism or power sharing, which produces a coalition government involving all the main parties. The nature of government strategy statements, consultation papers, legislative proposals, Assembly committee reports and policy documentation is examined in terms of their use of qualitative analysis and evidence. It is argued that the limited use of qualitative research and evidence reflects three main factors: a lack of political consensus, a deficiency in policy capacity and an absence of conceptual analysis. These barriers to the use of qualitative evidence and the promotion of qualitative research are also put in a wider context of a range of constraints in the form of political, ideological, communal and vested interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the approach adopted in a European research project concerning the relationships between science and industry. The analysis uses the notion of actors as vectors for the creation and diffusion of competences and knowledge throughout the innovation process. From this perspective, the article presents some results on the strategic behaviour of firms at the micro level in five countries. An analytical framework in terms of ‘conventions’ addresses the interplay between micro and macro levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents the conception and results of a research project on the changing roles of research organisations in Europe. Institutional settings and functional orientation of these organizations reflect the ongoing transformation of economies into service economies. Several analytical tools have been developed to study the dynamics of research organisations. These tools allow the positioning of research organisations in national systems of innovation and the interpretation of institutional reforms. They emphasise the service character of research activities and innovation policy and help to explain differences in the research landscapes across the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the work of the ‘Knowledge-intensive Services and Innovation’ (KISINN) Network, which examined the regional incidence of ‘knowledge-intensive business services’ (KIBS) across eight European countries in 1996/97. The paper examines how far KIBS growth has influenced regional policy thinking since 1997, especially in relation to innovation processes. There still seems to be little recognition at this scale that innovation is fundamentally a service-based process. KIBS growth is also generally regarded as economically marginal, rather than as a key component of the corporate-dominated nexus of expertise exchange which now drives regional economic inequality. More inter-sectoral, urban-based policies are required to counter these trends. The example of the recent English ‘Core City’ initiative shows how such an approach to supporting regional knowledge economies might progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the main results from the TSER reports reviewed in the VALICORES project, this survey article focuses on the Knowledge Infrastructure (KI) and on the institutional-spatial dynamics that characterize innovation and knowledge creation/accumulation/diffusion processes within the developing knowledge-based economy and society. Its aim is threefold. Firstly, the paper seeks to disentangle some crucial issues linked to the nature of the KI and the various agents it involves, their patterns of behaviour and forms of interaction, and their roles in knowledge and innovation processes. The second aim is to determine the extent to which institutional and spatial configurations shape knowledge and innovation dynamics in the European context. Finally, the article advances an analytical framework which could help the understanding of the dynamic interplay of institutions, strategies and spatial scales in the structuring and the deployment of the KI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether EU research programmes have led to innovations in European social research. This is based on an assessment of a group of EU-funded projects on the changing nature of work in Europe. EU-funded projects have contributed to the creation of a European social space for European researchers, but at the cost of consolidating English as the lingua franca of European social research. Such projects tend to involve heterogeneous research actors and are oriented towards policy issues. To some extent they are therefore representative of a 'Mode 2' form of knowledge production. More clearly, they have ensured that social research about Europe is no longer simply comparative research. The new EU Sixth Framework Programme on RTD will undermine many of these achievements through its focus on conventional definitions of 'excellence' and the insistence on large-scale research instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This brief paper provides a concise overview of the historical development of European research systems. Although social science has recently discovered national science and research systems as a topic of study, the historical origins of different national systems is as old as European science itself. The article provides a condensed tour of the major historical developments that have contributed to shaping the present European research landscape. These historical developments, which began with the establishment of the first European university in Bologna, show that the evolution of the European research system has been marked by forces pulling in opposite directions: on the one hand, the universalistic nature of science has forged co-operative relations across national boundaries; on the other hand, the national orientation of research systems embedded in nation-states has led to fierce competition. The article shows that this ambivalent historical legacy has shaped structures and practices in today's European research system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper provides an introduction to the research potential of household panel studies in general and the British Household Panel, in particular. It will discuss the relative strengths of longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis. Panel studies, however, are only one type of longitudinal design and the advantages and disadvantages of panels are discussed, in comparison to repeated cross sections and retrospective designs. Panel studies have a number of analytical advantages. First they make it possible to distinguish transitory and persistent phenomena, and to disaggregate net change. Second, panel data can help disentangle ambiguities in causal relations by providing temporal ordering. Third, they allow researchers to take into account the timing (in terms of age, or life-course stage) and the duration of conditions and experiences, both of which are crucial for understanding social continuity and change. Household panels have the additional feature of collecting personal data from each adult member. This enables analysts to explore the strong interdependencies of family choices and constraints; to investigate the impact of various life events on household members; and to examine the contextual processes that determine individual transitions, life trajectories and inter-generational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Household panel studies are now widely available to researchers in social science and social policy. This paper discusses the rationale, advantages, mechanics and problems of household panel studies. In the first part of the article, household panels are placed in their social, methodological, scientific and policy contexts. The next two sections deal respectively with design and analysis issues. Finally, there is a brief discussion of the existing national and international panels and their role as social scientific 'observatories'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]