The research of the U-Know project (2006-2009), coordinated at Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) by Johannes Stephan (now at Technical University Freiberg) and Björn Jindra has been completed. The project consortium, representatives of the European Commission, the Leibniz Association, and numerous other guests took part in the final project conference in Brussels in February 2009.

U-Know has brought together a large number of researchers from Eastern and Western European countries as well as from South Africa to work on questions related to technological change, innovation, human capital, intellectual property rights and the internationalization of research and development. Thereby, a focus on the transition of S&T systems in post-transition economies as well as their economic integration into the EU played a particularly important role. Please find more information in the Final Publishable Project Report. Selected key contributions of the project have been published by Imperial College Press in “Network dynamics in emerging regions of Europe” edited by Dr D. Dyker (SPRU, University of Sussex).

The interdisciplinary consortium continues to work together in various forms including joint publications, workshops, as well as mutual research visits. Furthermore, applications for new project funding are under way.

U-Know colleagues mourn for Dr Jo Lorentzen

On Tuesday, the 15th February 2011 our colleague and friend Dr Jo Lorentzen died unexpectedly at the age of 49 years in Pisa. Dr Jo Lorentzen was a chief research specialist in the Education and Skills Development research programme at the Human Science and Research Council (HSRC) in South Africa and an important cooperation partner of the IWH. We suffer the loss of a person that impressed and encouraged us with a sharp intellect paired with a rich social competence. We would like to express our deepest sympathy to his family and friends that survived him in Germany, Italy, and South Africa. more

The overarching research question, underlying the U-Know project, is to what extent are factors such as specific types of knowledge, institutional arrangements, organisational conditions, incentive systems, cognitive flexibility, as well as network alignment:

The U-know project focuses on the interrelatedness of the enterprise, public science/higher education, and governmental spheres. We apply the ‘Network Alignment’ approach as a tool to understand the role of knowledge for European competitiveness. Network alignment has arguably been a key ingredient for economic growth in some East Asian countries. Building on this experience, the research team undertakes comparative studies to identify missing, anti-developmental or mis-aligned networks in selected industrialised and transitional European economies. Thereby, we take sectoral, regional, as well as economy wide perspectives. This constitutes a key underpinning for extensive policy development.