Metropolisation, peripheries and funding of nano sciences & technologies_1

Research Area: Spatial analysis Year: 2018
Type of Publication: Online source
Authors:
  • Lionel Villard
  • François Perruchas
  • Thomas Scherngell
  • Michael Barber
  • Philippe Larédo
  • Jordi Molas-Gallart
Access date: 2019-08-21
Abstract:
There are multiple on-going debates about the geographical distribution and concentration of knowledge production worldwide. Recent work done by Grossetti et al. (2015) points to a ‘deconcentration’ process of knowledge production, visible not only at country level (linked to the periodic rise of new countries in the overall scientific production landscape, a long-lasting phenomenon), but also at metropolitan level. In a European policy context, this raises the question whether we can also identify such tendencies across the European territory, and whether this specifically applies to frontier scientific fields. In this demonstration, we have addressed this question for knowledge production in the field of Nano sciences & technologies (S&T), accounting for different kinds of knowledge production (scientific, technological and project-based). The attempts to characterise the dynamics of Nano S&T are not new (Noyons et al., 2003). One pre-condition for the empirical analysis of Nano S&T is its delimitation in relevant R&I datasets. Kahane and Mogoutov (2007) have developed a fully lexical approach which remained however static (considering only the whole period covered). This has meanwhile been advanced to a ‘dynamic‘ approach (Kahane et al., 2014) where the lexical delineation evolves each year according to the field specific vocabulary produced.