The relationship between public funded research and innovation is a growing concern. At the same time, collaboration between science-based institutions and companies is becoming more the rule than the exception. Science-based institutions, thanks to the process of knowledge and technology transfer, have a key role in favoring the improvement of firms’ competitive advantage (Kalar and Antoncic, 2015; Sanchez-Barrioluengo, 2014; Gaunand et al., 2015). However, understanding and evaluating the benefits associated to the collaboration between publicly funded research and private companies is not an easy task. Particularly challenging is the assessment of such benefits in the case of basic research, i.e. curiosity-oriented research. Basic research, indeed, has some specific features that makes its evaluation more challenging. By way of example, the output of research could be extremely differentiated: from tacit knowledge, to technological innovation, to trained and skilled graduates. Although some studies (see, for a review, Salter and Martin, 2001) had showed that basic research actually leads to economic and innovation benefits for the private sector, its impact and assessment continues to remain an open question for researchers.
Moving from this background, the present research wants to make a step further in assessing the benefits of basic research with respect to the private sector. To achieve this research aim, the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (the INFN) had been investigated. The INFN is the Italian institute devoted to the study of matter and the law that govern the universe. A mixed research methodology had been applied: a case study, with direct interviews with INFN researchers, and a quantitative survey to companies.
The research provides insights on the benefits that basic research leads to companies, not only from an economic perspective, but also at the level of innovation capabilities, transfer of new knowledge and problem-solving abilities, possibilities of developing new products and therefore entering new markets. At the same time, the study highlights some peculiarities of basic research that makes the measurement of its benefits much more complex than in applied research. Some of these peculiarities are related to the personal and unique relationship between researchers and companies that develops and growths in relation to the design of a specific prototype, the time lag between the transfer of knowledge and the use of this knowledge from the side of companies, the different objectives between basic research and the private sector. The full paper will also provide a provisional framework to assess the multidimensional impact of basic research to support managers of publicly funded research institutions in reporting the impact of basic research to external stakeholders. The framework allows to identify policy interventions tailored on the peculiarities of basic research aimed at defining an evaluation system that valorizes and maximizes the impact of basic research and that strengths and improves the collaboration with companies, to finally favor the local and national economic development.
D5 - Working with the private sector: Externalisation and public procurement
