Regional Innovation through Situated Knowledge Conversion (RISKC)

The project takes the debate on the knowledge foundation for strategies for smart specialisation (S3 in EU terminology) as its point of departure. It emphasises understanding the inter-play between micro level processes (individuals, firms etc.) and macro level incentives/ constraints (industrial structure, institutional arrangements etc.) in the development of new growth opportunities in a regional economy. Micro level processes include how actors convert and combine knowledge in different forms (practice based/ research based, individual/ collec-tive) from different sources (local/ global, value chain, R&D network) in their learning and innovation processes. These are studied through interviews. At the macro level the focus is on actual and potential industrial structure and triple helix constellations, studied through i.a. input/ output analyses, product space mapping, surveys and interviews. The project has looked at industry, aquaculture, tourism and ICT, in the regions of Nordland and Trøndelag. Through a connection to Nordland County Council's S3 strategy, a methodology for triple helix gap analysis is further developed as a contribution to the development in the region.

An improved understanding of the balance between static and dynamic forces in systems of innovation can be reached by combining processual and structural perspectives. We bundle three overriding research questions, to be addressed by corresponding work packages: (1).What are the structural and institutional constraints and opportunities for enhancing regional innovation systems by linking them constructively to national and global innovation networks? (2) By what processes of knowledge conversion, and in particular applications of science based knowledge in the economy, can this be achieved? (3) How can processes of policy learning be developed that stimulate changes in formal and informal institutions supporting enhanced regional innovation capabilities? . The dynamic forces are networks and systems of innovation providing flows of codified/science based knowledge ( WP1), and micro level processes of converting, or applying this knowledge in the economy, through combinations of science based knowledge with tacit knowledge (WP2). On the static side we expect to discover (1) gaps in networks, indicating relations where expectations are not met, (2) structural holes, (3) absence of networks between institutions and actors that might be expected to share related forms of knowledge, as well as at the micro level (4) internal mechanisms of knowledge conversion all of which hamper the use of science based knowledge in innovations. These discoveries open the third research question. WP3 explores the ways in which the static forces are created or reinforced by the wider institutional context of the systems of innovation, such as R&D institutions, universities, other educational institutions, and in labour markets. This is done through comparisons of clusters with similar knowledge bases (analytic, synthetic and symbolic) between three regions in Norway , and between regions in Norway and abroad. These comparisons opens up for trans-regional and trans-national learning.