Towards a Policy Framework for the Use of Knowledge in Innovation Systems

Policies meant to stimulate knowledge intensive innovation, should be based on a sound and realistic view how knowledge, especially scientific and technological, is used in innovation processes, and the workings of the innovation system and the complex flow of knowledge within it. Report is given on recent attempts in the Netherlands to formulate a policy framework that avoids basic assumptions of linear models of innovation. Instead, the framework is based on the interactive and cyclical ways knowledge is used in innovation systems. In case studies it is shown that application of the framework may help in analytical clarification. It is argued that it is important to introduce the framework on an intermediary level in policy making for two main reasons. Firstly, it enables to abstract from the institutions in the research infrastructure and to bring the discussion on such a level that the philosophy behind those institutions can be questioned. Secondly, the framework brings coherence in the discussions what should be done and why. The latter particularly applies to strategic discussions, such as resource allocation between science inspired by ‘science itself’ or ‘science inspired by society.’