The Geography of Networks and R&D Collaborations

The geography of networks and R&D collaborations, in particular the spatial dimension of interactions between organisations performing joint R&D, have attracted a burst of attention in the last decade, both in the scientific study of the networks and in the policy sector. The volume is intended to bring together a selection of articles providing novel theoretical and empirical insights into the geographical dynamics of such networks and R&D collaborations, using new, systematic data sources and employing cutting-edge spatial analysis and spatial econometric techniques. It comprises a section on analytic advances and methodology and two thematic sections on structure and spatial characteristics of R&D networks and the impact of R&D networks and policy implications. The edited volume provides a collection of high-level research contributions with an aim to contribute to the recent debate in economic geography and regional science on how the structure of formal and informal networks modifies and influences the spatial and temporal diffusion of knowledge.

Thomas Scherngell is researcher at the Foresight & Policy Development Department of the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology. He holds a venia docendi (habilitation) in Economic Geography and Regional Science at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. He received his M.A. (2003) from the University of Vienna (Mag. phil.) and his PhD (2006) from the same university (Dr. rer. nat). Thomas Scherngell is an expert in economics of innovation and technological change, R&D networks as well as in regional science and spatial analysis. Over the past five years, his focus of research was on the geographical dimension of innovation, R&D collaborations and networks. In the recent past, he has been working on the empirical analysis of R&D networks in Europe, where he intensively analysed collaboration patterns for organisations participating in the European Framework Programmes (FPs). His works in this area are published in leading journals of the field, among them Regional Studies, Papers in Regional Science, the Annals of Regional Science, Geographical Analysis, Social Networks or the Journal of Economic Geography.