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Photo of Maureen McKelvey, Magnus Gulbrandsen, Susanna Fellman och Uwe Canter.
From left: Maureen McKelvey, Magnus Gulbrandsen, Susanna Fellman and Uwe Canter.
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Changing science & innovation policy: The Gothenburg U-GOT KIES Centre Spring 2024 Workshop

The purpose of the Gothenburg U-GOT KIES Centre Spring Workshop 2024 was to discuss the current trends in changing science & innovation policy, with a special focus on Europe. Three eminent professors in Economics and Social Science presented, who are also actively involved in research councils and policy organizations in their respective country.

During the workshop, Professors Susanna Fellman, Uwe Canter and Magnus Gulbrandsen talked, respectively, about changing science and innovation policy in Sweden, Germany and Norway. They drew both upon their scientific expertise and their societal involvements in policy. Professor Maureen McKelvey (Director of the Gothenburg U-GOT KIES centre) chaired the following session.

Professor Maureen McKelvey explains this workshop.

- I ’ve organized the workshop in this way to tap into what is happening right now and provide the opportunity for reflections and learning. Call it another experimentation with the format of our bi-annual workshop at the Gothenburg U-GOT KIES centre. Moreover, what is changing now is related to some broader debates in society about the relationships between the knowledge economy, innovation, and challenge to the universities. One view can be summarized more as “leave science alone and enable autonomy” while another view is “make universities and science directly responsible to society”.

For the first view of ‘leave science alone’, natural & medical scientists and many economists have long argued that governments should support – but provide autonomy – to research and universities, as a mean to stimulate common goods and public goods, which will benefit everyone in society in the long term. For the second view ‘make it directly responsible’, many current debates focus on outcomes & impacts, including more pro-actively using science to change society, through concepts such as mission-driven policy and the responsible research & innovation agenda.

These are important topics to discuss at the workshop, as they affect how we govern and fund research, and may also affect future careers for young scientists. While there seem to be international trends at different epochs, each country also has nuanced debates about motivations, expected outcomes and the role of universities. Many countries also tend to use another country as their ‘role model’ to imitate. In fact, one motivation to bring together these participants was the reflection at a Gothenburg U-GOT KIES steering committee meeting, approximately: ‘Germany thinks it is imitating Sweden, but Sweden is about to change’.

More information

Professors

Susanna Fellman, Professor of Business History, Sweden
https://www.gu.se/en/about/find-staff/susannafellman2

Uwe Cantner, Full Professor of Economics, Germany
https://www.wiwi.uni-jena.de/en/cantner

Magnus Gulbrandsen, Professor at Centre for Technology, Innovation & Culture, Norway
https://www.sv.uio.no/tik/english/people/aca/magnugul/

Financial support
This workshop is supported by the University of Gothenburg and by the Swedish Research Council Distinguished Professor’s Programme, awarded to Professor M. McKelvey. Research Programme: “Knowledge- intensive Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: Transforming society through knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurship”, VR DNR 2017–03360.

About the Gothenburg U-GOT KIES centre
The Gothenburg U-GOT KIES centre promotes research and related impact activities about knowledge-intensive innovation ecosystems and society, from an economic and business perspective. Within our broader area of innovation and entrepreneurship, we aim to promote excellent research; improve graduate training; and increase societal impact. We conceptualize the Gothenburg U-GOT KIES centre as an arena with intermediary functions and a toolbox of people, networks, and activities, used to institutionalize interactions over time and space between stakeholders.

Webpage:  https://www.gu.se/en/u-gotkies

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/centre-on-knowledge-intensive-innovation-ecosystems