Gender and innovation - learning from regional VRI projects

This project addresses questions related to how innovation processes are influenced by gender. Focus is put on innvation processes in relation to four regional VRI projects. The large bulk of innovation research has not taken into consideration the gend ered aspects of the phenomenon. Consequently, knowledge on how gender influences on innovation processes and innovation systems is very scarce. How innovation and economic growth is understood, has implication for innovation policies and hence for how eco nomic and other incentives are distributed to different businesses and industries. Further, it has consequences for who are considered as relevant actors in innovation processes, and consequently for participation in these processes. Innovation can be c onsidered as dependent on the linkage of different resources and competencies, and what is recognized as valuable competence and knowledge for innovation is gendered. However, due to the lack of research on this field both nationally and internationally, there is little knowledge on how these processes are gendered, consequences for male and female participation in innvation, as well as consequenses for the innovation processes themselves. The regional VRI projects aim to fullfill national goals related to gender aspects as part of their project. However, there is a very limited knowledge base to build this work on. By working together from four regional VRI projects, including a variation of industries, this project aim at contributing to a relevant kno wledge base in this area. An important aspect of this project is to bring forward perspectives concerning gender and innovation at the business level, the businesses' network level, as well as the regional level. Central research questions addressed are: - How are competence and innovation in different ways linked to understandings of gender? - How do such understandings influence participation in innovation?