ANI organizes webinars to discuss good practices in technology and knowledge transfer
Portugal is above the European Union average in the number of scientific publications co-authored outside the community, in the number of international doctoral students, in the registration of community trademarks, in employment in companies with high growth in innovative sectors, among other indicators monitored in the last European Innovation Scoreboard.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he country now needs to transform these assets into economic value. It is in order to analyze and debate the technology and knowledge transfer networks in Portugal, as well as good European practices in this matter, that the National Innovation Agency (ANI) organizes, on the next 13, 17, and 20 May, three webinars , focused on the North, Center and Alentejo regions, respectively. This initiative intends to contribute to promote a greater transfer and valorization of the knowledge produced in the country.
In these online events, two studies organized by ANI will be presented and discussed: “Knowledge Transfer Networks and Dynamics in Portugal” and “Good International Knowledge Transfer Practices in Portugal”.
The first study characterizes the projects in co-promotion (projects of companies developed with other companies or other entities of the Innovation and Research System) supported under the Incentive System “Research and Technological Development”, both in the period 2007-2013, in which the QREN was in force, as from 2014 onwards, within the scope of Portugal 2020. The networks for transferring and valuing knowledge associated with these projects and their respective alignment with the national (ENEI) and regional (EREI) strategies are also analyzed. ) of smart specialization.
It should be remembered that the ENEI and EREI strategies establish priority areas for national and regional economies, which are supported by the incentives in force.
According to this study, the dynamics of knowledge and technology transfer in Portugal are in the process of intensification, given the increase in the number of active projects throughout the NSRF and Portugal 2020. In parallel, it appears that the integration between regions in matters of collaborative R&D projects is increasing, which will help the catching-up of regions with less dense innovation systems, such as Alentejo and Algarve. The majority of supported co-promotion projects, according to the analysis, have a moderate degree of innovation and are globally aligned with smart specialization strategies.
The network analysis carried out allowed us to observe that the national global network is populated by a large proportion of companies, but academic and intermediary entities are also very present and with central roles in the network’s connections. The global network exhibits a preponderance of actors from three sectors of activity: ICT, metallurgical industries, and business services.
When analyzing the collaborations formed with Portugal 2020 and those generated by the QREN, it is concluded that Portugal 2020, still in execution, currently represents more than 51% of the analyzed relationships, despite involving the analysis of a smaller number of projects.
Finally, the ties by region reveal that the regions of the North (34.28%) and the Center (26.58%) concentrate a significant part of the projects and that there is a notable number (29.75%) of multiregional connections.
The most connected domains of ENEI are “Materials and raw materials” with “Production technologies and product industries” and with “Production technologies and process industries” and “Production technologies and product industries” with “Production technologies and process industries “.
It should also be noted that in the regions with the most projects (North and Center), areas that can clearly be distinguished from the rest by the number of projects can be identified, namely, the domain of “advanced production systems” in the North and that of “sustainable industrial solutions” in the center.
