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This paper analyses the conditions and factors influencing non-university researchers' career transitions back into academia. Using affiliation data in publications of German researchers, their cross-sector career transitions from the public research organisation Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and industry to universities are analysed. Although the rate of transitions is small, there are distinctive windows of opportunity at a junior career stage, especially for Fraunhofer researchers. Researchers who publish more and in more acclaimed journals, Fraunhofer researchers who co-publish with universities, and women are more likely to gain a university affiliation over the course of their career. These results indicate the influence of institutional proximity for cross-domain career transitions. The quality and impact of academic knowledge could be improved if the higher education sector was more open to recruitment of researchers from other sectors. Policy needs to target the barriers that preclude applied researchers from pursuing university careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the accumulation of financial resources in higher education. Its focus lies on the Quality Pact for Teaching (QPT) , a large-scale funding programme that aimed to improve the quality of tertiary education in Germany. Starting in 2011, the QPT allocated almost 2 billion euros over a 10-year period. Yet, unlike prior national funding schemes, the QPT was strongly inspired by New Public Management measures and marked the first time that a substantial amount of teaching grants was awarded in a competitive manner. My estimations show that institutions with a successful history of acquiring third-party funds coped best under these novel circumstances, thus revealing a clear pattern of cumulative advantage. Although typically dedicated to research purposes, the level of previous third-party funding emerges as a strong predictor of QPT success. Therefore, it appears that the QPT unintentionally contributed to steeper financial gaps in Germany's academic landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses public visions of microalgae as a food source to explain present innovation paths of a yet unproven scientific technology. The paper highlights the multi-perspectivity of contested futures, focusing on the role of generalized narratives as boundary objects. Using disaggregative policy Delphi, we reveal the key-narratives of microalgae nutrition with regard to expectability, desirability, and popularity. The study involved a two-round online survey with 229 participants, who were asked open and closed questions. We then clustered the answers and gave feedback in form of generalized narratives. Participants want microalgae to sustainably feed the world, while they also expect microalgae to be more likely a health product or an inconspicuous food substitute. Our findings show that Delphi methods are not only suitable to look into the future, but also for empirical research into perspectives on the future that help distinguish and hone the cognitive interest of politicians and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While science communication is increasingly being discussed as a third mission alongside research and teaching, there is little research on how universities and research organizations deal with issues regarding the quality of science communication. This article examines, from an organizational perspective, which new forms of quality assurance processes scientific organizations in Germany apply when addressing quality risks for science communication such as exaggeration in press releases or in the online communication of individual faculty members. Six focus group discussions were conducted with 22 participants (rectors or presidents of universities, heads of communication, ombudsmen, and high-impact researchers). Based on the results, proposals were developed to extend central as well as decentral organizational structures to assure good scientific communication practice. Their possible implementation was discussed in a workshop with representatives of all abovementioned groups. In conclusion, recommendations for future institutional policy are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided an extraordinary test case for an analysis of the interrelations between policymakers and scientific experts faced with grave decisions and given the respective levels of trust they enjoy. The article provides a comparative analysis between three countries—Germany, the USA and South Africa (SA)—of the interrelation between the public's perceptions of the threat posed by the pandemic, the trust in governments and in scientific experts formally organized to advise governments, and the acceptance of governments' decisions to mitigate the pandemic. These scientific experts enjoyed a high degree of acceptance even when admitting uncertainty and the need for further research. Support for politicians also remained high in spite of the severity of the measures implemented and their increasingly evident departure from their experts' advice. However, trust in politicians deteriorated as the pandemic progressed, most dramatically in the USA, less so in SA and Germany, due to the politicization of the pandemic. The analysis is limited to events during 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple institutional affiliations (or co-affiliations) occur when an academic belongs to more than one organisation. Recent research shows an increase in academics with multiple affiliations, but evidence on how these are organised and on academics' motivations is mainly anecdotal. In this study we develop a typology of co-affiliations, which identifies four types based on their purpose and origin. We draw on results from a unique international survey of academics in three major science nations (the UK, Germany, and Japan) to study the different factors that could explain the four types of co-affiliations. The analysis shows that academics' motivations (networking/prestige, resources, teaching, or personal income) correlate with the observed co-affiliation type. Researcher-initiated and research-focussed co-affiliations are often motivated by networking and resource access while co-affiliations that serve other than research purposes are more often income-motivated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the institutional persistence of systems of national laboratories (SNLs) that unlike other public and private research organizations appear to have experienced only minor institutional shifts in recent years. Although national laboratories started as time-limited mission-oriented projects, most of them have remained in operation as continuously renewed multi-purpose organizations. By comparing the SNLs in Germany and the USA, this paper discusses the relationship between the system and the organizational level and concludes that incremental organizational rearrangements have enabled the institutional persistence of SNLs despite considerable changes in their political and funding environments. The paper applies recent advances in institutional theory and thus contributes to a better understanding of institutional change in path-dependent public R&D systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents data on publication and collaboration patterns of USA and German research institutions in the field of global environmental change research. A dataset derived from the Web of Science showed that a marked rise in international co-authorship occurred in the period 1993-2002. However, this increase covered different world regions unevenly. Building on interview data, four factors driving international collaboration in this particular research area are identified which help to explain this specific trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with innovation cooperation as a means to support the ongoing catch-up process of the East German economy. Against prevalent beliefs, it can be shown that East German enterprises are more often involved in innovation cooperation than West German firms, and differences in cooperation partner priorities only reflect the given structural differences between the two regions. While cooperating enterprises in East and West Germany are clearly more innovative than their non-cooperating counterparts, a productivity advantage of these firms is (so far) only observable in West Germany. Reasons for this surprising finding are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent debates in science and technology studies, as well as more practical approaches to science policy both at national and European level, have stressed the relevance of citizen participation in the field of science. This paper investigates what some of the key actors in this debate, civil society organisations, expect from participation. The paper presents two case studies of civil society participation in the field of novel biotechnologies in Germany and in Spain. Despite the differences between the experiences of participation in these two countries, our study shows that current institutional approaches, which are inspired by the 'democratisation of expertise' perspective and set up essentially at the 'downstream' level, seem less promising than 'upstream' models of participation, which, in contrast, appear more meaningful from a 'co-production of science' framing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the role academic organizations and their members play within their socio-economic and socio-political contexts. It presents findings of the case study of a German university. Based on qualitative interviews, written documents and bibliometric analyses, we can see that, first, most of the university's links to the economy, political actors, and broader civil society emerge in a bottom-up and decentralized way, and they thrive on individual motivation and commitment. Therefore, there are clear limits to the formal institutionalization of such activities at the organizational level. Second, while ties to industry pay off at least indirectly through research funding, links to regional policy-making and broader civil society remain largely unrewarded in academia. For the future, we expect a growing tension between the organizational goal to embrace additional goals and the individual goals, especially of younger researchers who increasingly tend to focus on those activities that are rewarded in academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research institutes generate knowledge that contributes to the progress of science and society. Thus, they display certain specific organizational characterizations. This paper examines the variations in the descriptions of German extra-university research institutes by using a qualitative content analysis. It investigates the mission statements and self-descriptions from Max Planck institutes, Fraunhofer institutes, and government research agencies related to the material sciences in order to discuss differences among the institutes and to understand how they cope with external expectations. The findings reveal that the missions of the scientific associations tend to highlight scientific and other orientations. Those research institutes open to scientific communication and non-scientific problems tend to associate with non-scientific orientations. Based on these findings, I argue that external assessments of research institutes should pay attention to the organizations’ self-description and asserted connections to science and society. The use of this perspective should minimize conflicts concerning the appropriate representation of such institutes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper outlines a new approach to defining research priorities at a regional level. The methodical approach relies on a combination of bibliometric indicators and qualitative data and aims at the identification, selection and evaluation of medium-term relevant research fields. This type of analysis of quantitative and qualitative data contributes to what is called evidence-based policy making. By linking bibliometric information with questionnaire-based assessments by more than 480 scientists in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg (Germany), strategic research fields were pre-selected for potential policy action. Overall, the study shows that strategic decisions for shaping and advancing research processes demand not only methodical proficiency in bibliometrics but also a broad knowledge of the structure of the research landscape and forward thinking on a broad canvas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the principal-agent theory, this paper analyses the historical emergence of policies supporting spin-off activities since the end of the Second World War, focusing on Germany as an exemplary case study. It argues that the significance of spin-offs in research policy is not an effect of their hard-and-fast number or their direct economic impacts but rather of their symbolic meaning, providing legitimacy for academic institutions and funding agencies in controversial public debates about science and technological policies. Spin-offs, like technology transfer at large, are important to the rationale and legitimacy of science and research policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulations on genetically modified organisms in the EU require the implementation of co-existence systems in agriculture. This paper examines the economic effects and costs for farmers when introducing different co-existence measures in genetically modified maize. For this purpose different scientific methods are used including simulation methodology. First, the co-existence costs in maize crop and seed production for individual farmers are analysed in a region in France. Second, the focus is on the regional dimension of co-existence measures when analysing the costs of buffer zones in maize production in France and Germany. Some general conclusions are then drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper updates to 2006 material first gathered in the late 1990s. Though Germany has about the same number of firms as the UK its biotechnology economy is far weaker, with many small firms employing few people, relatively low venture capital investment and little interest being shown by pharmaceuticals companies in licensing intellectual property. The reverse is the case in the UK even though the investor euphoria at the time of the first comparative study has not returned. A new policy of 'entrepreneurship outsourcing' has become visible in the UK as venture capital perceives a better business climate for biotechnology entrepreneurship in the USA. Recent developments of this kind may add to debilitating European problems, loosening more proximate links within national and regional innovation systems widely perceived as highly important elements in biotechnology cluster performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the practices of interdisciplinary research projects in nine extra-university research institutions in Germany. The research fields of these institutions include representative fields of current interdisciplinary research, such as climate change research, environmental studies, organizational research, and area studies. The analysis shows that the outcome of interdisciplinary research cooperation depends upon the micro-organization of research practices. There is, however, no singular recipe for a successful cooperation. Instead, the case studies show a multiplicity of adequate "styles of interdisciplinarity": methodological, charismatic, heuristic and pragmatic interdisciplinarity. The differences between them depend upon the organizational and epistemic conditions of research practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent discussions on governance, on science and technology policy and on adequate advice types motivate reconsidering some constitutive issues of technology assessment (TA). To these belong the frequently demanded scientific independence of a TA institution and of TA projects. The semantics of the term 'scientific independence' comprise related or partially synonymously used terms, such as autonomy, unprejudicedness, value-neutrality, rationality, objectivity, impartiality, or equity. In this paper we will — after a general discussion of those facets — focus on parliamentary TA, using the Office for Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag as an example, identifying strengths and limitations of the postulate for scientific independent TA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of institutional transformation in science have largely overlooked Big Science installations, despite far-reaching changes to the roles and functions of such large labs in the past decades. Here, we present and analyze two Big Science labs that have undergone profound transformations from single-purpose particle physics labs to multi-purpose centers for so-called photon science: SLAC in the USA and DESY in Germany. We provide brief historic accounts of the labs and an analysis of the processes of change on different levels and from different aspects informed by a theoretical framework of institutional change in science. Thus, we describe the relevance of the study of Big Science labs from the perspective of institutional change and in terms of science policy/management. We also prove the aptness of the framework used and pave the way for a detailed analysis of particular forces of change and their interrelatedness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A model that conceptualizes the development of academic disciplines and related industries as intimately linked is presented. It predicts that the relative strength of a national industry which has a significant input on science or engineering knowledge is causally related to the strength of the nation's relevant science or engineering discipline and vice versa. At national level, the model predicts that, over longer periods a nation cannot remain weak in one domain and strong in the other. It identifies the conditions under which government intervention is likely to be effective. A case study of synthetic dyes in the period 1857–1914 illustrates how these positive feedback processes led Germany and Switzerland to become strong in both organic chemistry and the dye industry, while the UK and France declined in both domains and the USA remained relatively weak in both. A shorter case study of biotechnology supports the predictions made by the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

German universities have traditionally been characterized as homogenous. However, recent policies such as the excellence initiative were supposed to introduce differentiation and incentivize universities to develop more specific missions. This study analyzes the mission statements of German universities using a quantitative content analysis. It focuses on the question, whether the mission statements of German universities can be clustered in different groups and if so, whether the membership in one of these groups correlates with a university's success in one of the initiatives or other organizational characteristics. The results show that German universities today have somewhat differentiated mission statements focusing either on research or education. Additionally, half of the universities created significantly longer mission statements with more diverse profiles. However, the characteristics of a university's mission statement are found not to be related to the university's success in the excellence initiative, the Competition for Teaching Excellence or the type of institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the role public support plays in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) R&D financing as well as these firms' assessments of financing conditions in the context of other framework conditions for innovation. Using the sample of 2,708 German SMEs that participated in public R&D promotion programs during 2005-10, we identify four unique types of R&D financing. Firms are generally positive about public financing of R&D in Germany, although a group of R&D companies without a track record that wish to introduce an innovation to the market find it difficult to procure a loan. SMEs perceive obstacles to innovation primarily in the non-financial sphere, namely, the supply of skilled personnel, market regulation, and competition conditions. Therefore, future work on innovation policies for SMEs should place greater emphasis on the non-financial external framework conditions for firm R&D and innovative activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By linking the realms of public policy-making, science and the public, advisory committees that include academics, state representatives and societal stakeholders answer to a double challenge that governments face today: a need for technical knowledge and an increasing demand for public acceptance and accountability. In contrast to purely scientific policy advice, little theoretical attention has so far been paid to these hybrid advisory committees. Drawing on and adapting research on knowledge utilisation, theories of delegation, decision-making and governance, an analytical framework of the use of multi-source, negotiated expertise will be developed and applied to four cases set up by the German Federal Government with mandates in social policy and in science and technology policy. The study shows the committees' pronounced governance potential, which builds on their political and epistemic authority. It describes two distinct dynamics that lend the committees to instrumental, problem solving, and symbolic, substantiating purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the intervention to generate structural innovations and with it the structural interaction between organisation actors can be understood as attempts to tackle system failures in innovation systems, mainly as regards networking and actor capabilities. However, these interventions are challenging, they often rest on simplistic assumptions on interaction and networking needs and potentially generate dysfunctional systemic effects. These challenges are discussed using illustrations of structural innovations to improve industry-academic collaborations in the UK and Germany. The article then concludes with a conceptual and policy discussion of opportunities, challenges and unintended consequences of deliberate structural innovation and intervention in structural interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a framework for analysing the interplay of institutions and practice for cross-sector research collaboration (CSRC) between science and industry. The German science sector, which has been reformed to a remarkable degree during the last 10 years, is used as an empirical case study. The article assesses the impact of selected recent reforms on the stimulation and outcome of CSRC. In general, positive impacts on CSRC in terms of governance, scope and rewards are expected. However, some of the reforms are yet to be fully implemented and some even conflict with existing practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite many attempts to develop high-impact venture capital (VC) policies, most VC markets in Europe are still underdeveloped. Many of these policies were based on 'traditional' (Rosiello et al, 2009) VC policy involving a mix of monetary incentives and institutional changes. In this article, we present an alternative evolutionary VC policy, which is based on a dynamic analysis of emergence processes and on the co-evolution between VC and entrepreneurship, as well as on a dynamic and adaptive view of policy. The article presents four case studies of VC development: Israel, UK, Scotland, and Germany. Evolutionary VC policies rely on few major factors: i) a strategic objective and a long-term commitment to enhancing VC market and high-tech cluster emergence and development, ii) a phased-policy portfolio including both direct and indirect VC-policy components, and iii) a dynamic policy process, which is adaptive to the specific context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The governance of Germany's public 'knowledge system' is characterised by a variety of coordination needs and modes in a layered and fragmented federal system. Competences are divided between horizontal sectoral ministries and agencies at the federal level and between federal level and the states (Länder), the latter being endowed with major competences in education and science policy. This fragmentation may have advantages regarding interfaces with stakeholders, but coordination between and within ministries is indeed insufficient when it comes to providing policy consistency and overall orientation. The German case shows the coordination challenges of fragmented systems and attempts to improve coherence and provide orientation through means such as (limited) disentanglement of responsibilities, strategic, cross-cutting initiatives, and the usage of standards, evaluation and advisory bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates whether sector-specific research and development (R&D) specialisation indices are a useful device for R&D policy analysis. We first conceptualise R&D specialisation, and then discuss the usability and limitations of a quantitative benchmarking approach by displaying specialisation indices for Austria, Germany and Norway. We show that the extent of correlation between public and private R&D funding specialisation in firms varies considerably between countries. Reasons for specific specialisation patterns are to be found in government funding decisions and strategies, such as the role of bottom-up research funding or the relevance of defence R&D. Limitations in data availability and lack of appropriate classifications require a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures in order to understand better existing R&D specialisation patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2001 and 2002, Germans debated and legislated both immigration and the importation of stem cells for research. These two debates were driven by a sense of danger precipitated by developments in science and technology, and, in both, a rhetoric of crisis was countered by a rhetoric of potentiality. This article argues that, as Germany finds itself unable to reproduce the qualities that define it as a people, it seeks to import the potential for growth from elsewhere. The process by which this potentiality is purified and made admissible into German society reproduces, but also alters, existing understandings of German citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking the example of the consultation of experts in processes of parliamentary decision-making, this article shows how it is possible to support democratic processes by means of the institutional and organisational type of technology assessment (TA) chosen by the German Bundestag. Members of the Bundestag often find it difficult to discern on which premises and preconditions expert knowledge is based. They are quite often helpless facing the 'experts' dilemma', consisting of the confrontation of expertise and counter-expertise. The questions to be dealt with are, how TA as advice to the legislature deals with this situation, what kind of experience has been gained with it, and what are the limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]