Helix System in the Changing Research Landscape: Case Finland
Anne Kovalainen; Seppo Poutanen
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2021042715161
Tiivistelmä
The economic downturn during the first decennium of the 21st century has more or less globally introduced new types of pressures on and demands for the national innovation systems and its subsystems. Not all of the changes in the research landscape are directly consequential of the external shocks of economic kind. The economic austerity and economic pressures do put forward also several austere measures, such as cutbacks in budgets also speed up changes in the innovation infrastructure landscape.
In the paper our purpose is to investigate the latter processes, more precisely, the close connections between three spheres of the innovation system, that is, university, industry and government, and changes within the system. We will discuss through one country case what happens in the relations of the university, industry and government (the Triple Helix), when major changes in the key elements are taking place. The paper will explore the connections between the three agencies in the changing research policy landscape, in order to be able to analyze the changes of the triple helix system. We will also address the question of whether the state foothold has become less prevalent and non-transparent in the new innovation system due to the new organization of the triple helix relations. The aim is not to offer the best possible model but rather to understand how the national, nation-state objectives and industrial environments have translated into new variations in the policy adaptation in the birth process of new hybrid organizations.
We will use Finland as a case example to discuss one particular type of solution to adapt the development of the innovation system to the growing demands from various interest areas. Finland is a small open nation-state with an extensive innovation system and with close connections between State, universities and private sector that have developed over a long period of time. The need to reorganize some of the R&D activities was raised through science policy actors as a response to the growing European and global challenges. It is therefore interesting to analyze how the connections between the State, universities and private sector evolve, adapt and change over time.
Kokoelmat
- Rinnakkaistallenteet [19207]