Internationalization of Research and Innovation: new policy developments

The  forces of globalization  and  the  enabling  characteristics of internet communication have impacted the nature of research and innovation. Knowledge and innovation processes are both more dispersed and more openly accessible. In addition, we witness a shift in the global knowledge and innovation geography with both being  increasingly generated  and developed in  regions outside Europe, North America and Japan. Countries, which in some respects are still regarded as being in the  early stages of economic  development, are  increasingly driving  global knowledge and innovation development.

To  access and make use  of globally­dispersed  knowledge and  connect with important innovation hubs in  new  markets, both public and private  sector research  activities are  internationalising. Universities and other research institutions act to attract and retain the best talent in order to secure  stable  research financing. Companies act to find  the  most suitable innovation environments in  which to locate to secure skilled personnel and supportive business conditions, as well as access to  strategic customers and  markets. And  different levels of government  act to simultaneously build strong, stable  hubs that drive  economic  growth and  ensure  agile, entrepreneurial global networks
that catalyze continuous renewal.

Policymakers, at regional, national and supranational level, are responding in different ways to the changing  knowledge and  innovation  geography. From the  perspective  of innovation  policy, the challenge is to enable domestic actors to connect to world­leading knowledge and innovation hubs in  ways that benefit and strengthen regional and national innovation systems. Policymakers are often expected to encourage internationalization that allows firms and researchers to access worldclass knowledge and strategic markets while at the same time ensuring that value creation resulting from international science and technology cooperation accrues to the domestic constituency.This paper examines how countries respond to the above­defined challenges by designing strategies and  policies aimed  at enabling  national innovation systems to benefit from the  changing  global knowledge and  innovation  geography. By  analyzing  two surveys and  a  number  of national innovation and  internationalization strategies, we are  able  to  identify a  number  of new trends in policy strategies and  types of instruments used  to achieve  objectives. The  comparative analysis highlights an evolving and broadening scope for innovation policy, an increased need for strategic prioritisation of research  and  innovation investments and  collaboration partner  targets, and  an increased  demand for more  complex  internationalization support services necessitating  a deeper engagement of public  sector intermediaries. The  analysis also highlights a  number  of policy challenges related to the internationalization of innovation.