Regional Knowledge Creation and R&D collaboration in Europe
Innovation is widely considered as essential basis for regional economic growth. However, new knowledge can nowadays not be generated by firms alone. R&D collaborations and networking with regional and global partners have become increasingly important for successfully generating new knowledge.
The project attempted to use simulation methods to analyse knowledge production in regions, taking into account interaction processes at the company level. A strongly empirically guided form of agent-based modelling (ABM) was chosen as the methodology and applied to knowledge production in European regions (at the NUTS 2 level).
It pursued three different objectives: (i) to analyse the influence of regional R&D networks on knowledge production in a region, (ii) to distinguish between the effects of local interaction and global information channels, and (iii) to identify technological specialisation trends and geographical concentration processes.
The model to be developed was to be applied to real-world issues: simulation experiments related to the influence of political framework conditions on regional knowledge production and were able to support the ex-ante evaluation of political support measures.
Start: 2016
Duration: 3 years
Funded by: FWF
Contact: Manfred Paier
