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Content archived on 2024-06-25

Patterns of multi- and interdisciplinary research in bionanotechnology

Objective

During the last years there has been a sharp increase in the number of policies that promote inter-disciplinarity under the assumptions that:
(i) interdisciplinary research generates a higher rate of scientific breakthroughs and
(ii) it is more successful a t promoting innovation and at dealing with societal problems (Bruce et al., 2004). Such a move has been prompted by a number of studies highlighting the socio-economic benefits of a more cross-disciplinary new mode of knowledge production (Kodama, 1992; Gi bbons et al., 1994).
However, there are few empirical studies systematically analysing the different patterns of cross-disciplinary dynamics in emergent technologies and evaluating under which particular conditions the benefits of multi- or interdisciplina rity outstrip the very high learning and transactional costs incurred (Llerena and Meyer-Krahmer, 2004; Schummer, 2004).
This project aims to characterise the patterns of cross-disciplinarity in the development of some fields of bionanotechnology and evalu ate comparatively their scientific and innovative outcomes. I will apply bibliometric approaches successfully tested in nanotechnology (Meyer, 2001; Schummer, 2004), in parallel with qualitative case studies based on interviews, in order to obtain a detail ed micro-level picture of the key cognitive, instrumental and organisational elements that have contributed to research in diverse bionanotechnology fields. Case studies will be selected among different countries (including the main EU players, Japan, China and the US), so as to visualise the national differences in institutional rigidities and enabling conditions. In a final stage, I will analyse the policy and theoretical implications of the results.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

FP6-2004-MOBILITY-5
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

EIF - Marie Curie actions-Intra-European Fellowships

Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX
EU contribution
No data
Total cost
No data