Objectives & Strategies
The main objective of the Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies (CESIS) is to carry out systematic, peer-reviewed research of innovation systems, and to transform the evidence-based findings to decision-support for innovation policy making in the Swedish society. Specific objectives are to:
- develop an internationally recognized centre of excellence for science and innovation research
- build-up and communicate a research-based pool of knowledge, with theoretical and empirical support, for the design and implementation of policies for innovation and sustainable growth
- extend existing and establish new networks of researchers, policy makers and other stakeholders for exchange and dissemination of research results, new knowledge and cooperation.
CESIS will adopt an approach to innovation systems research that comprises systematic analyses of dynamic interdependencies in the development of firms, their industries, interaction networks and institutional milieu. Evidence-based knowledge is derived from time-series observations of individuals, firms, sectors, regions and pertinent networks – including data combined for cross-country comparisons. The analyses should generate a better understanding of sectoral innovation systems ranging from entrepreneur and firm perspectives to international contexts. The focus areas is sectoral innovation systems, comprising the role of international networks and innovative small and medium-sized companies.
Innovation policies may consider two alternative perspectives: (1) remedy of market failures and (2) stimulation of the co-evolution of knowledge, innovation, organizations and institutions. CESIS will stress evidence-based findings pertaining to the latter policy area, i.e. co-evolution. The associated policy objective is the development of sectoral and regional networks in which individual firms can move into states of persistent and sustainable innovation.
The CESIS innovation systems approach is designed to:
- allow for controlled, systematic quantitative analyses of innovation systems at different levels primarily using register and survey data on firms, sectors and regions, while confronting quantitative results with interviews of selected firms and other IS actors
- analyze interaction effects between various levels, e.g. how R&D strategies of innovating firms influence an aggregate sector or a region/country as well as how sector and market characteristics influence firms’ innovation strategies
- assess the evolution of firms, sectors and regions over time, and the role of dynamic interdependence in these processes
- select research questions that spring from issues and problems experienced in VINNOVAs innovation support activities and programmes
- develop knowledge that will enhance the prerequisites for research-based decisions about innovation policy in the Swedish society