Advances in higher education and professional development book series, 2020
Universities are expected to play a leading role in the smart specialisation strategy process. Ho... more Universities are expected to play a leading role in the smart specialisation strategy process. However, a gap between discourse and practice is marking the RIS3related regional development programmes, which can be extended to the involvement of universities in the process. A mismatch can be speculated between the expectations towards universities' roles in RIS3 implementation and actual practice, and its repercussions on a regional innovation ecosystem. This chapter addresses the extent to which the role played by universities in a region's innovation and entrepreneurial practice aligns with the smart specialisation strategic outline. As an in-depth case-study of the University of Aveiro (Portugal), it draws on both quantitative and qualitative data, with an analysis of RIS3 approved projects in the Portuguese NUTS II Centro region, and interviews with key actors within the university and the regional administration. Through this, it weighs the contribution of entrepreneurial universities to the RIS3 goals, drawing lessons for public policy and discussing the future of RIS3.
Universities are increasingly expected to support their local economy and engage with regional st... more Universities are increasingly expected to support their local economy and engage with regional stakeholders. The third mission being widely acknowledged in higher education policies, universities have become more connected on a regional level through different kinds of engagement mechanisms, such as projects and networks. Despite the dominant 'one-size-fits-all' approach to regional development, the volume and form of engagement is highly dependent on the regional context. In the past decades, the Finnish higher education policies have indeed linked universities’ third mission more closely with regional development, which, for its part, resulted in the establishment of six university consortia to foster the economic growth in their locations. The university consortia, collaboration networks coordinating different activities of several host universities in peripheral areas, have thus a special focus on the regional mission. In addition to providing access to higher education in these more remote regions and generating skilled workforce to the local job market, they collaborate regularly with businesses, NGOs and public sector. They are also typically more active in taking part in Structural Funds (SF) projects than their home universities located in larger cities. The Structural Funds programmes can be significant tools of regional development, especially in funding local R&D activities. They are also one of the key instruments supporting regional collaboration between higher education, businesses and other local stakeholders, especially in more peripheral areas. Higher education institutions are expected to take an active role in these programmes, but currently they are rather marginal and less known funding instrument for Finnish universities. Although the university consortia’s enhanced regional role is self-evident, the Finnish state funding model for universities, also applied to these remote units, is entirely based on traditional academic outcomes. Therefore, universities are forced to fund their regional development activities with external funds from the municipalities, regions and SF programmes. However, the latter are less appealing to university organisations because of their applied approach to research, high bureaucracy and self-financing rates, and most importantly lack of performance-indicators for the third mission activities in the current state funding model. This study focuses on how regional context affects to universities regional engagement through SF programmes. An exploratory case study of University Consortium of Pori (UC-Pori) mainly draws on semi-structured interviews with researchers and universities’ top and middle management, and secondary data set including SF project data bases, regional policies and institutional strategies. UC-Pori is a network of four Finnish universities (Aalto University, Tampere University of Technology, University of Tampere and University of Turku) located in the Satakunta region in the Western Finland. It serves as an exemplary case of a remote university unit that engages very actively with SF programmes in contrast to their home universities; at the time of the research interviews, UC-Pori had been granted nineteen SF projects from the current programme period. The aim is to study how the home universities steer UC-Pori’s regional mission. What are the main benefits of SF projects for universities: are SF projects an opportunistic way to diversify the funding base of entrepreneurial universities with easy “add-ons” to raise regional profile? Is the participation a question of survival, an access to less competitive external funding to safeguard jobs? Or can the SF activities be strategically planned way to implement third stream activities while successfully combined with universities traditional missions? Tentative results from the UC-Pori indicate that universities’ regional engagement through SF programmes rely heavily on individual academics efforts, and is more valued in remote university units, whereas there is a lack of general interest and steering from their home universities. Despite their evident regional benefits, engaging with SF projects can be seen as unimportant activity taking time from ‘serious research activities’. Nonetheless, the researchers working in the Satakunta region share a more positive view on the overall importance of implementing the third mission especially through SF projects. They provide a platform for collaboration with a number of external stakeholders, including local businesses and other HEIs, though sometimes SF projects are just an easy access to external funding without further agenda. In regard to academic missions, SF projects can offer rich data sets for research projects and financing for PhD students, but currently the strict national programme guidelines and bureaucratic overload hinder academics to reach projects’ full potential neither in research nor in commercial activities
In the past decade, the EU Cohesion Policy has become dominated by the smart specialisation appro... more In the past decade, the EU Cohesion Policy has become dominated by the smart specialisation approach driving more place-based innovation. Its overall aim is to decrease regional disparities through Structural Funds Operational Programmes, which are important instruments of regional R&D funding. In parallel, universities' traditional role as a provider of knowledge and education has shifted towards broader regional engagement, 'third mission', which has also increased expectations to support economic growth in their locations. The universities' regional role has become widely acknowledged in international, national and regional policies, although universities may have a limited capability to respond to the diverse regional demands. As the smart specialisation approach binds universities tighter to regional policy making processes (e.g. RIS3), the SF funding can play a significant role in universities' adaptions of the third mission. It can support universities to deliver engagement activities, especially in lessdeveloped regions, thus contributing to the creation of regional systems of innovation and matching university research better with regional priorities. However, the universities' role and motivation to take part in such regional programmes and projects have not been largely examined, nor has the range of different types or characteristics of universities' engagement located in rural regions sufficiently identified. This research builds on the evolution of the 'entrepreneurial university' towards a more context-sensitive assessment of the university engagement, and previous studies providing insights on the universities' role in delivering regional development projects funded through Structural Funds programmes. The theoretical framework of the study consists of selected mainstream concepts of the higher education studies, namely the university third mission and entrepreneurial university / entrepreneurial architecture. The study seeks to explore how (entrepreneurial) universities can manage and deliver their third mission through Structural Funds programmes in rural regions. A qualitative analysis focuses on the specific characteristics and challenges of university-led SF activities, as well as on the impact of a rural region to the overall university engagement. These issues were studied through three case studies representing regionally-focused universities located sparse innovation environments in the UK, Finland and Portugal. The research project fills in a gap in the academic literature by generating new knowledge on the organisation of the university-led Structural Funds projects and their alignment with the university third mission in universities located in these remote regions. As a result, the impact of a rural region to the overall university engagement was assessed, suggesting that a more context-sensitive approach to the university's entrepreneurial architecture. Also, stylised typology of four types of university-led SF projects was derived based on the empirical evidence from all case studies. The findings imply that there is yet unused potential in optimising both regional and academic benefits from the SF activities, but challenges remain related to national and regional adaptations of the Cohesion policy in designing Operational Programmes, the capacity of university organisations to make use of the this type of funding efficiently, regional and institutional communications systems stimulating collaboration with regional actors, and finally, the lack of strategic approach to designing SF projects within universities.
There is limited experience with innovation policies in rural areas, often based on a one-size-fi... more There is limited experience with innovation policies in rural areas, often based on a one-size-fits-all approach. However, rural businesses have diverse needs and there is difficulty in applying smart specialisation approaches for the use of European Union Cohesion funding in rural areas. A key resource in rural areas is the local university, and universities face increased demands to support local firms. This paper examines one particular case of a university in a rural region and its use of the European Regional Development Fund to support innovation activities. The challenges of working with rural businesses are explored, as is the focus on one-to-one support rather than the more collective smart specialisation approach. Universities need to take a pragmatic approach to ensure that the needs of firms can be balanced with the capacities of rural universities which are often smaller and more specialised than urban universities.
Association for Higher Education Studies, Jun 30, 2021
Universities are increasingly expected to contribute to regional development and the wellbeing of... more Universities are increasingly expected to contribute to regional development and the wellbeing of communities in the places in which they are located through a wide range of third mission activities. However, this is an arduous task as these regional activities are usually pitched against other missions, namely teaching and research, and global orientation strategy. While the literature has recently implied that rankings might be the cause of universities' insufficient regional contributions, the manner in which they inhibit regional engagement is yet to be uncovered. This paper therefore explores how rankings permeate universities and guide the behaviours of academics and top managers and thereby influence their regional engagement activities. Using a multiple case study design entailing semi-structured interviews carried out in Dutch, English and Finnish universities, we demonstrate that rankings inhibit universities' regional contributions in two ways: i) by exacerbating universities' difficulty of justifying regional engagement activities to the funders through an emphasis on quantitative third mission indicators, and ii) by encouraging universities to shift their focus from regional relevance to global excellence through stronger institutional profiling. We argue that rankings are not the cause of universities' insufficient regional contributions per se, but rather a symptom of it; the cause is increasingly global competition between higher education institutions.
The RUNIN project's Design Lab Think Tank took place on 28 th June 2018. Its aim was to discuss t... more The RUNIN project's Design Lab Think Tank took place on 28 th June 2018. Its aim was to discuss the topic of universities' engagement with society, specifically in their region. It used a world café format that brought together regional stakeholders to discuss how the University of Twente (UT) can incorporate societal questions in its core activities and, through this, create regional benefits. This report provides a description of the event, a summation of the initiatives proposed and an analysis of the discussion that was prompted by the sub-questions around the subject of universities' societal engagement. Reconnecting the University to the Region of Twente Findings from the RUNIN-Design Lab Think Tank 4 Think Tank Report Enschede, the Netherlands June 2018 to develop relations at various levels and nurture bottom-up initiatives and assimilation of knowledge from society into the academic community.
Rhoda was a RUNIN research fellow at the University of Lincoln and has a PhD on the 'Microfoundat... more Rhoda was a RUNIN research fellow at the University of Lincoln and has a PhD on the 'Microfoundations of Academics Networks: Initiation, Evolution and Context'. She also holds a BSc. in Biochemistry from the University of Ghana and an MSc. in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from the University of Oslo. She has industrial experience working as a supply chain quality specialist in Nestle Ghana. She is a visiting researcher at the University of Lincoln's International Business School and currently works as a business development manager at a startup company, Wattero AS in the Oslo area.
How can the Twente Board align universities, businesses, government and society for innovation an... more How can the Twente Board align universities, businesses, government and society for innovation and regional development? Contents
Universities of applied sciences (UAS) have a strong mandate to carry out research, development a... more Universities of applied sciences (UAS) have a strong mandate to carry out research, development and innovation (RDI) activities in collaboration with local stakeholders. Geographical proximity is one of the key factors for the creation and success of RDI activities because of the positive balance between costs and benefits of local knowledge transfer, but they also depend on the networks of individual staff members. This paper aims to explore how the UAS have managed to maintain and develop purpose-built and individual RDI partnerships during the COVID-19 pandemic by proposing an enlarged theoretical framework for assessing contextual dimensions of the RDI activities beyond academic entrepreneurship as business ventures (Wright, 2014). A single case study drawing on semi-structured research interviews investigates how the swap to remote working have affected to RDI activities of in the case of Tampere University of Applied Sciences, one of the biggest UAS in Finland with intense regional linkages. The contribution of the study is twofold; Firstly, the paper introduces an expanded theoretical approach for assessing the external and internal factors having an impact on the RDI activities beyond academic entrepreneurship. Secondly, by testing the proposed framework, it shares insights and good practices derived from empirical evidence, namely binary data and semi-structured interviews revealing experiences of RDI personnel and project managers involved with different phases of RDI process, for optimising high-quality innovation support, knowledge transfer activities and co-creation of new knowledge in exceptional circumstances
Current EU policies place an increasingly important role in supporting national and regional R&D ... more Current EU policies place an increasingly important role in supporting national and regional R&D activities and innovation systems (European Commission, 2010). One of the EU’s key instruments, Cohesion Policy implemented through national Structural Funds (SF) Operational Programmes, aims to support local level innovation to reduce economic and social disparities (EU 1301/2013). This is currently implemented through the smart specialisation concept, which drives more place-based EU policies (McCann and Ortega-Argiles, 2015). The role of universities has become crucial both in regional innovation strategy formulation, especially in RIS3 processes identifying the regional priorities (e.g. Foray et al., 2009), but also in implementation of the strategies (Santos and Caseiro, 2015). These strategies guide the access to local European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF) programmes, which can facilitate matching universities’ research more closely with regional ...
Universities are expected to contribute to regional development through the ‘third mission’ going... more Universities are expected to contribute to regional development through the ‘third mission’ going beyond the traditional academic core functions. Hitherto, the literature has focused on a rather idealistic ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to university engagement, though in reality universities have different ways to carry out third stream activities. This has been partly explained by geographic factors. This study focuses on how a particular context can shape universities’ institutional responses towards the third mission. A single case study of University of Lincoln (UK) demonstrates that a rural context has impact on the way universities develop their Entrepreneurial Architectures. A contextual element, namely a rural region, was added to the Entrepreneurial Architecture framework, originally conceptualised by Vorley & Nelles (2009), to study how the rural context affects to the other dimensions of the EA framework. Tentative findings from the Lincoln case study suggest that in rural...
Universities are expected to contribute to regional development through the ‘third mission’ going... more Universities are expected to contribute to regional development through the ‘third mission’ going beyond the traditional academic core functions. Hitherto, the literature has focused on a rather idealistic ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to university engagement, though in reality universities have different ways to carry out third stream activities. This has been partly explained by geographic factors. Therefore, this paper focuses on how a particular context can shape universities’ institutional responses towards the third mission. A single case study of University of Lincoln (UK) demonstrates that a rural context has impact on the way universities develop their Entrepreneurial Architectures. A contextual element, namely a rural region, was added to the Entrepreneurial Architecture framework, originally conceptualised by Vorley and Nelles (2009), to study how the rural context affects to the other dimensions of the EA framework. Tentative findings from the case study suggest that in ...
Current EU policies place an increasingly important role in supporting national and regional R&D ... more Current EU policies place an increasingly important role in supporting national and regional R&D activities and innovation systems (European Commission, 2010). One of the EU’s key instruments, Cohesion Policy implemented through national Structural Funds (SF) Operational Programmes, aims to support local level innovation to reduce economic and social disparities (EU 1301/2013). This is currently implemented through the smart specialisation concept, which drives more place-based EU policies (McCann and Ortega-Argiles, 2015). The role of universities has become crucial both in regional innovation strategy formulation, especially in RIS3 processes identifying the regional priorities (e.g. Foray et al., 2009), but also in implementation of the strategies (Santos and Caseiro, 2015). These strategies guide the access to local European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF) programmes, which can facilitate matching universities’ research more closely with regional ...
Advances in higher education and professional development book series, 2020
Universities are expected to play a leading role in the smart specialisation strategy process. Ho... more Universities are expected to play a leading role in the smart specialisation strategy process. However, a gap between discourse and practice is marking the RIS3related regional development programmes, which can be extended to the involvement of universities in the process. A mismatch can be speculated between the expectations towards universities' roles in RIS3 implementation and actual practice, and its repercussions on a regional innovation ecosystem. This chapter addresses the extent to which the role played by universities in a region's innovation and entrepreneurial practice aligns with the smart specialisation strategic outline. As an in-depth case-study of the University of Aveiro (Portugal), it draws on both quantitative and qualitative data, with an analysis of RIS3 approved projects in the Portuguese NUTS II Centro region, and interviews with key actors within the university and the regional administration. Through this, it weighs the contribution of entrepreneurial universities to the RIS3 goals, drawing lessons for public policy and discussing the future of RIS3.
Universities are increasingly expected to support their local economy and engage with regional st... more Universities are increasingly expected to support their local economy and engage with regional stakeholders. The third mission being widely acknowledged in higher education policies, universities have become more connected on a regional level through different kinds of engagement mechanisms, such as projects and networks. Despite the dominant 'one-size-fits-all' approach to regional development, the volume and form of engagement is highly dependent on the regional context. In the past decades, the Finnish higher education policies have indeed linked universities’ third mission more closely with regional development, which, for its part, resulted in the establishment of six university consortia to foster the economic growth in their locations. The university consortia, collaboration networks coordinating different activities of several host universities in peripheral areas, have thus a special focus on the regional mission. In addition to providing access to higher education in these more remote regions and generating skilled workforce to the local job market, they collaborate regularly with businesses, NGOs and public sector. They are also typically more active in taking part in Structural Funds (SF) projects than their home universities located in larger cities. The Structural Funds programmes can be significant tools of regional development, especially in funding local R&D activities. They are also one of the key instruments supporting regional collaboration between higher education, businesses and other local stakeholders, especially in more peripheral areas. Higher education institutions are expected to take an active role in these programmes, but currently they are rather marginal and less known funding instrument for Finnish universities. Although the university consortia’s enhanced regional role is self-evident, the Finnish state funding model for universities, also applied to these remote units, is entirely based on traditional academic outcomes. Therefore, universities are forced to fund their regional development activities with external funds from the municipalities, regions and SF programmes. However, the latter are less appealing to university organisations because of their applied approach to research, high bureaucracy and self-financing rates, and most importantly lack of performance-indicators for the third mission activities in the current state funding model. This study focuses on how regional context affects to universities regional engagement through SF programmes. An exploratory case study of University Consortium of Pori (UC-Pori) mainly draws on semi-structured interviews with researchers and universities’ top and middle management, and secondary data set including SF project data bases, regional policies and institutional strategies. UC-Pori is a network of four Finnish universities (Aalto University, Tampere University of Technology, University of Tampere and University of Turku) located in the Satakunta region in the Western Finland. It serves as an exemplary case of a remote university unit that engages very actively with SF programmes in contrast to their home universities; at the time of the research interviews, UC-Pori had been granted nineteen SF projects from the current programme period. The aim is to study how the home universities steer UC-Pori’s regional mission. What are the main benefits of SF projects for universities: are SF projects an opportunistic way to diversify the funding base of entrepreneurial universities with easy “add-ons” to raise regional profile? Is the participation a question of survival, an access to less competitive external funding to safeguard jobs? Or can the SF activities be strategically planned way to implement third stream activities while successfully combined with universities traditional missions? Tentative results from the UC-Pori indicate that universities’ regional engagement through SF programmes rely heavily on individual academics efforts, and is more valued in remote university units, whereas there is a lack of general interest and steering from their home universities. Despite their evident regional benefits, engaging with SF projects can be seen as unimportant activity taking time from ‘serious research activities’. Nonetheless, the researchers working in the Satakunta region share a more positive view on the overall importance of implementing the third mission especially through SF projects. They provide a platform for collaboration with a number of external stakeholders, including local businesses and other HEIs, though sometimes SF projects are just an easy access to external funding without further agenda. In regard to academic missions, SF projects can offer rich data sets for research projects and financing for PhD students, but currently the strict national programme guidelines and bureaucratic overload hinder academics to reach projects’ full potential neither in research nor in commercial activities
In the past decade, the EU Cohesion Policy has become dominated by the smart specialisation appro... more In the past decade, the EU Cohesion Policy has become dominated by the smart specialisation approach driving more place-based innovation. Its overall aim is to decrease regional disparities through Structural Funds Operational Programmes, which are important instruments of regional R&D funding. In parallel, universities' traditional role as a provider of knowledge and education has shifted towards broader regional engagement, 'third mission', which has also increased expectations to support economic growth in their locations. The universities' regional role has become widely acknowledged in international, national and regional policies, although universities may have a limited capability to respond to the diverse regional demands. As the smart specialisation approach binds universities tighter to regional policy making processes (e.g. RIS3), the SF funding can play a significant role in universities' adaptions of the third mission. It can support universities to deliver engagement activities, especially in lessdeveloped regions, thus contributing to the creation of regional systems of innovation and matching university research better with regional priorities. However, the universities' role and motivation to take part in such regional programmes and projects have not been largely examined, nor has the range of different types or characteristics of universities' engagement located in rural regions sufficiently identified. This research builds on the evolution of the 'entrepreneurial university' towards a more context-sensitive assessment of the university engagement, and previous studies providing insights on the universities' role in delivering regional development projects funded through Structural Funds programmes. The theoretical framework of the study consists of selected mainstream concepts of the higher education studies, namely the university third mission and entrepreneurial university / entrepreneurial architecture. The study seeks to explore how (entrepreneurial) universities can manage and deliver their third mission through Structural Funds programmes in rural regions. A qualitative analysis focuses on the specific characteristics and challenges of university-led SF activities, as well as on the impact of a rural region to the overall university engagement. These issues were studied through three case studies representing regionally-focused universities located sparse innovation environments in the UK, Finland and Portugal. The research project fills in a gap in the academic literature by generating new knowledge on the organisation of the university-led Structural Funds projects and their alignment with the university third mission in universities located in these remote regions. As a result, the impact of a rural region to the overall university engagement was assessed, suggesting that a more context-sensitive approach to the university's entrepreneurial architecture. Also, stylised typology of four types of university-led SF projects was derived based on the empirical evidence from all case studies. The findings imply that there is yet unused potential in optimising both regional and academic benefits from the SF activities, but challenges remain related to national and regional adaptations of the Cohesion policy in designing Operational Programmes, the capacity of university organisations to make use of the this type of funding efficiently, regional and institutional communications systems stimulating collaboration with regional actors, and finally, the lack of strategic approach to designing SF projects within universities.
There is limited experience with innovation policies in rural areas, often based on a one-size-fi... more There is limited experience with innovation policies in rural areas, often based on a one-size-fits-all approach. However, rural businesses have diverse needs and there is difficulty in applying smart specialisation approaches for the use of European Union Cohesion funding in rural areas. A key resource in rural areas is the local university, and universities face increased demands to support local firms. This paper examines one particular case of a university in a rural region and its use of the European Regional Development Fund to support innovation activities. The challenges of working with rural businesses are explored, as is the focus on one-to-one support rather than the more collective smart specialisation approach. Universities need to take a pragmatic approach to ensure that the needs of firms can be balanced with the capacities of rural universities which are often smaller and more specialised than urban universities.
Association for Higher Education Studies, Jun 30, 2021
Universities are increasingly expected to contribute to regional development and the wellbeing of... more Universities are increasingly expected to contribute to regional development and the wellbeing of communities in the places in which they are located through a wide range of third mission activities. However, this is an arduous task as these regional activities are usually pitched against other missions, namely teaching and research, and global orientation strategy. While the literature has recently implied that rankings might be the cause of universities' insufficient regional contributions, the manner in which they inhibit regional engagement is yet to be uncovered. This paper therefore explores how rankings permeate universities and guide the behaviours of academics and top managers and thereby influence their regional engagement activities. Using a multiple case study design entailing semi-structured interviews carried out in Dutch, English and Finnish universities, we demonstrate that rankings inhibit universities' regional contributions in two ways: i) by exacerbating universities' difficulty of justifying regional engagement activities to the funders through an emphasis on quantitative third mission indicators, and ii) by encouraging universities to shift their focus from regional relevance to global excellence through stronger institutional profiling. We argue that rankings are not the cause of universities' insufficient regional contributions per se, but rather a symptom of it; the cause is increasingly global competition between higher education institutions.
The RUNIN project's Design Lab Think Tank took place on 28 th June 2018. Its aim was to discuss t... more The RUNIN project's Design Lab Think Tank took place on 28 th June 2018. Its aim was to discuss the topic of universities' engagement with society, specifically in their region. It used a world café format that brought together regional stakeholders to discuss how the University of Twente (UT) can incorporate societal questions in its core activities and, through this, create regional benefits. This report provides a description of the event, a summation of the initiatives proposed and an analysis of the discussion that was prompted by the sub-questions around the subject of universities' societal engagement. Reconnecting the University to the Region of Twente Findings from the RUNIN-Design Lab Think Tank 4 Think Tank Report Enschede, the Netherlands June 2018 to develop relations at various levels and nurture bottom-up initiatives and assimilation of knowledge from society into the academic community.
Rhoda was a RUNIN research fellow at the University of Lincoln and has a PhD on the 'Microfoundat... more Rhoda was a RUNIN research fellow at the University of Lincoln and has a PhD on the 'Microfoundations of Academics Networks: Initiation, Evolution and Context'. She also holds a BSc. in Biochemistry from the University of Ghana and an MSc. in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from the University of Oslo. She has industrial experience working as a supply chain quality specialist in Nestle Ghana. She is a visiting researcher at the University of Lincoln's International Business School and currently works as a business development manager at a startup company, Wattero AS in the Oslo area.
How can the Twente Board align universities, businesses, government and society for innovation an... more How can the Twente Board align universities, businesses, government and society for innovation and regional development? Contents
Universities of applied sciences (UAS) have a strong mandate to carry out research, development a... more Universities of applied sciences (UAS) have a strong mandate to carry out research, development and innovation (RDI) activities in collaboration with local stakeholders. Geographical proximity is one of the key factors for the creation and success of RDI activities because of the positive balance between costs and benefits of local knowledge transfer, but they also depend on the networks of individual staff members. This paper aims to explore how the UAS have managed to maintain and develop purpose-built and individual RDI partnerships during the COVID-19 pandemic by proposing an enlarged theoretical framework for assessing contextual dimensions of the RDI activities beyond academic entrepreneurship as business ventures (Wright, 2014). A single case study drawing on semi-structured research interviews investigates how the swap to remote working have affected to RDI activities of in the case of Tampere University of Applied Sciences, one of the biggest UAS in Finland with intense regional linkages. The contribution of the study is twofold; Firstly, the paper introduces an expanded theoretical approach for assessing the external and internal factors having an impact on the RDI activities beyond academic entrepreneurship. Secondly, by testing the proposed framework, it shares insights and good practices derived from empirical evidence, namely binary data and semi-structured interviews revealing experiences of RDI personnel and project managers involved with different phases of RDI process, for optimising high-quality innovation support, knowledge transfer activities and co-creation of new knowledge in exceptional circumstances
Current EU policies place an increasingly important role in supporting national and regional R&D ... more Current EU policies place an increasingly important role in supporting national and regional R&D activities and innovation systems (European Commission, 2010). One of the EU’s key instruments, Cohesion Policy implemented through national Structural Funds (SF) Operational Programmes, aims to support local level innovation to reduce economic and social disparities (EU 1301/2013). This is currently implemented through the smart specialisation concept, which drives more place-based EU policies (McCann and Ortega-Argiles, 2015). The role of universities has become crucial both in regional innovation strategy formulation, especially in RIS3 processes identifying the regional priorities (e.g. Foray et al., 2009), but also in implementation of the strategies (Santos and Caseiro, 2015). These strategies guide the access to local European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF) programmes, which can facilitate matching universities’ research more closely with regional ...
Universities are expected to contribute to regional development through the ‘third mission’ going... more Universities are expected to contribute to regional development through the ‘third mission’ going beyond the traditional academic core functions. Hitherto, the literature has focused on a rather idealistic ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to university engagement, though in reality universities have different ways to carry out third stream activities. This has been partly explained by geographic factors. This study focuses on how a particular context can shape universities’ institutional responses towards the third mission. A single case study of University of Lincoln (UK) demonstrates that a rural context has impact on the way universities develop their Entrepreneurial Architectures. A contextual element, namely a rural region, was added to the Entrepreneurial Architecture framework, originally conceptualised by Vorley & Nelles (2009), to study how the rural context affects to the other dimensions of the EA framework. Tentative findings from the Lincoln case study suggest that in rural...
Universities are expected to contribute to regional development through the ‘third mission’ going... more Universities are expected to contribute to regional development through the ‘third mission’ going beyond the traditional academic core functions. Hitherto, the literature has focused on a rather idealistic ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to university engagement, though in reality universities have different ways to carry out third stream activities. This has been partly explained by geographic factors. Therefore, this paper focuses on how a particular context can shape universities’ institutional responses towards the third mission. A single case study of University of Lincoln (UK) demonstrates that a rural context has impact on the way universities develop their Entrepreneurial Architectures. A contextual element, namely a rural region, was added to the Entrepreneurial Architecture framework, originally conceptualised by Vorley and Nelles (2009), to study how the rural context affects to the other dimensions of the EA framework. Tentative findings from the case study suggest that in ...
Current EU policies place an increasingly important role in supporting national and regional R&D ... more Current EU policies place an increasingly important role in supporting national and regional R&D activities and innovation systems (European Commission, 2010). One of the EU’s key instruments, Cohesion Policy implemented through national Structural Funds (SF) Operational Programmes, aims to support local level innovation to reduce economic and social disparities (EU 1301/2013). This is currently implemented through the smart specialisation concept, which drives more place-based EU policies (McCann and Ortega-Argiles, 2015). The role of universities has become crucial both in regional innovation strategy formulation, especially in RIS3 processes identifying the regional priorities (e.g. Foray et al., 2009), but also in implementation of the strategies (Santos and Caseiro, 2015). These strategies guide the access to local European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF) programmes, which can facilitate matching universities’ research more closely with regional ...
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Papers by Maria Salomaa