Evolution of specialisation: public research in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries

Abstract

This purpose of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, it aims to contribute to the debate over the relationship between public scientific research and industrial innovation, analysing, in particular, the importance of distance in the process of knowledge transfer from public research to industrial innovation. On the other hand, given the importance played by publications and technical reports in the process of knowledge transfer, it examines the evolution of scientific specialisation in the chemical and pharmaceutical fields in the four largest European countries (the UK, Germany, France and Italy), the EU as a whole, the US, and Japan. Particular attention is devoted to examining whether the country scientific specialisation is similar in different typologies of research (Applied Technology & Engineering, Applied Research and Basic Research) and whether it is stable over time. By so doing the concepts of knowledge integration and knowledge persistence are introduced. The former refers to the degree of similarity in the country scientific specialisation in the typologies of research, while the latter defines the stability in the publication profile of a country over time. The results of the analysis show that the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors have completely different perceptions of and make different use of public research, and that the pharmaceutical sector relies upon international, and particularly North American, research much more than does the chemical sector. Furthermore, the country level analysis of specialisation patterns indicates that the US has a much more integrated and persistent specialisation profile in Medical Chemistry and Pharmacy & Pharmacology than the other countries considered.