History and Past Activities
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History and Past Activities |
Aaro Tupasela
Department of Sociology, Research group for Comparative Sociology
University of Helsinki
Helsinki
Finland
e-mail: aaro.tupasela@helsinki.fi
Can Biotechnology Meet Governmental Demands? Research groups as Economic Engines.
Recent policy initiatives in Finland, as well as other European countries, have focused on the role of biotechnology as an important engine for national economic development. Government investment into biotechnology research in universities has been enormous in the hopes that public expenditure will have a positive effect on research and development, as well as growth in the sector. Public universities are regarded as the place where new technologies will be developed to serve the needs of a burgeoning industry in Finland.
In this paper I look at two university research groups in the Helsinki region; one at the Helsinki University of Technology and the other at the University of Helsinki. Both utilize biotechnology in research and both have been successful to some degree in the commercialization of their research. The paper examines the degree to which these two laboratories have been able to meet governmental demands in terms of developing new contacts with the private sector and their impact on economic development. It analyzes the capacity of these laboratories to do contract research and teach at the same time without losing sight of their academic goals. A comparative approach has been chosen to highlight the variation that exists within biotechnology research organizations and their ability to commercialize their results.
Sociology of Science and Technology NETwork - last update: April 2006