Investments, incentives, and the impact of Danish research (TRIPLE-I)

Abstract:

With this proposal, we aim to improve our understanding of the way universities, firms and research funders interact and how research impacts society at large. We will focus on the pivotal role of individual researchers and their interactions with firms, funders and universities. We will analyse the incentives and constraints researchers face and explore how these influence their research activities such as publishing, patenting or starting spin-off firms. Understanding how the mechanisms work at the micro level will allow us to assess the likely impact of research. We accomplish this research on the basis of uniquely detailed and comprehensive data on Danish researchers and their interactions, the Triple-I-Research database constructed from registry information and researcher surveys.Each subproject will address an issue of importance to research policy such as: What are the effects of apreferential researcher tax scheme on researcher migration; how does the ownership model for academic patents affect technology transfer from universities; are there spill-overs to co-workers of academic researchers joining private firms; how are the prevalence and performance of university spin-offs affected by public funding schemes; and what are the interrelationships between public and private charitable research grants.The project team consists of Danish and international researchers with proven academic records, relevant methodological experience within fields of economics, and ample experience in collecting and analysing data. The project will be based at the Copenhagen Business School. It will include a post-doc and a PhD student as well as a research officer (PhD level). The general direction and conduct of research will be guided by an advisory board. The project will run during the period of 2017–2020. We will report on our findings in terms of academic publications, three conferences accompanied by policy reports, two workshops and a number of policy briefs.