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Does inter-regional scientific collaboration in academic research encourage the quality of science

Date: 11th September 2013
Time: 14:00
Location:


 

 
Public Policy, Enterprise, Governance and Sustainability (PPEGS) Seminar Series
 
Dr Esther Ferrandiz, Department of Economics, University of Cadiz (Spain)

Titled
Does inter-regional scientific collaboration in academic research encourage the quality of science? 
 
Date: Wednesday 11th  September 2013 14h00-15h00
Venue: Kemmy Business School, KB1-14
 
Bio:  Dr Esther Ferrandiz - PhD, Department of Economics, University of Cadiz   (Spain)
Esther Ferrandiz has a PhD in Economics, and is a faculty member in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Cádiz (Spain). Her research interests focus on economics of science and technology. She has published several papers in journals such as Scientometrics and European Planning Studies and presented contributions to a variety of international conferences from the field of innovation and regional studies: DIME, DRUID, Triple Helix, etc. She has also been a visiting scholar at the University of Utrecht (Netherlands) and K.U. Leuven (Belgium).

Abstract:
The rationale for many governments to support research collaboration –as part of their funding conditions– usually relies on the perception that collaboration improves the results in terms of quality of the scientific production that might strength the knowledge base. However, this relationship is not straightforward. In this paper, we contribute to the empirical literature by addressing this topic from a regional perspective and analysing scientific collaboration from an economic viewpoint. The objectives are twofold: first, to identify the spatial patterns of inter-regional scientific collaboration and the quality of the scientific output across EU-15; second, to examine whether collaboration between regions affects the quality of the scientific publications at different (geographical and economic) scope. The main data to capture the regional scientific collaboration consists of a sample of nearly 1,000,000 papers from 1998 to 2004 obtained from the Thomson ISI (Information Sciences Institute) database. The data include all the papers from all scientific fields (excluding the social sciences and humanities), for over 500 European universities related to the European regions (at NUTS II level of aggregation) and the number of citations they received up to 2009. Our results suggest that inter-regional scientific collaboration enhances the quality of the research both in developed and non-developed (Objective-1) regions. We also show that international collaboration has a positive and significant effect in developed regions, while Objective-1 regions benefit more from collaboration with developed regions. The analysis is relevant for policy-makers to elaborate a research agenda and to decide the allocation of funds.
 
 
for further information email: michelle.cunningham@ul.ie