Publisher's Synopsis
Research and development are essential strategic activities. They are vital for technology programs whose goal is to increase the competitiveness of companies and even of countries such as EU member states. But the critical need for strategic management of these R&D activities is largely unrecognized. Technological programs encourage alliances and collaborations between various actors (universities, public laboratories, technology centers, etc.). They aim at the collective development of new skills and know-how. But this outcome cannot be easily assimilated to academic research, which produces new knowledge, nor to innovation, which brings new goods and services on to the market. Neither scientific peer evaluation nor market sanctions alone are therefore suitable for managing and monitoring technological programs. How is a technological program and the networks that it sets up to be defined, managed, or ended? How are the dynamic links that a program promotes between researchers and industrialists to be monitored? How are new goals or actors to be introduced? To answer all these questions, a continuous evaluation of the objectives, the actors, and the results is necessary. This evaluation is synonymous with constant management that is mindful of scientific and technical content and of the links that form between the actors but also of the results obtained and their congruence with the strategies of the moment. A new era is beginning, in which success will go to those who can manage the hybrid activities between science, technology, and the market. Bringing together the top specialists in the field, this book takes stock of the methods and tools that are being developed and used in Europe today to ensure a genuine strategic management of research and technology. Michel Callon, Philippe Larédo, and Philippe Mustar are with the Centre for Sociology of Innovation at the Ecole des Mines de Paris.
