Will the Center Hold? What Research Centers Do to Universities and to Societal Challenges

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Abstract

Research centers represent a specific organizational format for linking the traditional university organization with external actors, goals, and processes in time-limited, concentrated efforts of research and collaboration. Yet, the center format contains large variations, and centers act as interfaces between university organizations, societal actors, and research funders in multifaceted ways. In this chapter, we focus analytically on the organizational structuration of universities and the influence of external funding on the steering of work modes and orientations of academic research. We ask what centers do, how they affect universities’ operations, and why some centers are more successful than others in their missions. We address these questions through an analysis of six centers within the 10-year Vinn Excellence and Berzelii center schemes run by the Swedish innovation Agency Vinnova, drawing on interviews, evaluation reports, and a broad range of archival data. We highlight great variations in how universities are influenced by center funding, which is most effective when aligned with internal university strategies. Center success depends on the fit and integration of internal and external ambitions, university strategies, and partner orientations. However, such alignment is merely reinforced, rather than altered, by external center support.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMaking Universities Matter
EditorsP. Mattsson, E. Perez Vico, L. Salö
PublisherSpringer Gabler
Pages123-140
Number of pages18
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-031-48799-6
ISBN (Print)978-3-031-48798-9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Publication series

NameInnovation, Technology and Knowledge Management
VolumePart F2013
ISSN (Print)2197-5698
ISSN (Electronic)2197-5701

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Other Social Sciences

Free keywords

  • Governance
  • Higher education institutions
  • Organization
  • Research funding
  • Steering

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