Open Transfer. New forms of cooperation and exchange between science and business in innovative market platforms

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Open Transfer is a joint project of the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB) and the Fraunhofer Center for Responsible Research and Innovation (CeRRI) to analyze shifts in the industry-science-relations in the context of R&D activities. The WZB team is exploring the mobility sector, the CeRRI team is exploring the fields of microelectronics and optics. It is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

The project examines the research, development, and innovation activities of private companies: How do they organize research and development (R&D) activities within the company and what kinds of knowledge do they seek from external sources in order to reinforce their position and to remain competitive in the global economy? What kind of far-reaching changes of content and forms of R&D-processes can be identified? What new methods can be created for sharing and transferring common knowledge to partners from the entrepreneurial and the academic fields?

Empirical data is drawn from selected companies in three sectors: mobility, microelectronics and optics. Case studies in each sector entail semi-structured expert interviews with the key actors from corporate strategy and corporate research (e.g. R&D-divisions). Additional interviews are being conducted with experts from cooperating public research institutes and from the research and innovation policy.

Free download of findings of the project Open Transfer: Link