Abstract
The effectiveness of societal interaction has become a key aspect in evaluating the success of higher education institutions (HEIs) in performing their duties. These factors have been built into institutional funding models, and the funding of research follows a similar approach. External stakeholders are now having to share in undertaking some of the functions that will define higher education institutions’ external activities, societal interaction and impact on society. The European Union’s smart specialisation strategy is such a factor. This initiative allows higher education institutions to implement policies by building regional clusters. The counterparts of higher education institutions in these clusters of smart specialisation are knowledge-intensive enterprises, high-tech service providers, educational institutions, the Arctic Smartness Specialisation Platform and other centers of expertise for smart specialisation. In this paper, we have analysed the role of higher education institutions as knowledge brokers in smart specialisation though a qualitative analysis of 20 interviews conducted during the implementation of the smart specialisation project. Our findings show that the knowledge broker role can be promoted from four perspectives: the social dimension of networks; decision-making and control; cluster building; and exchange elements. The clarification and legitimation of the role of higher education institutions as knowledge brokers in these areas would give smart specialisation more impetus to reach its goals.
Highlights
The European Commission is aiming to boost economic growth and jobs with the European Cohesion Policy and the Strategies for Smart Specialisation (S3) initiative, as a part of the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth
higher education institutions (HEIs) as knowledge brokers in smart specialisation refers to their ability to achieve political goals, and to the task of HEIs to increase the effective use of knowledge in regional and international networks and develop the knowledge society
As research has shown [29], currently it is important for HEIs to increase the emphasis on the wider usefulness and uptake of research, which will increase the mobilisation of knowledge and enable the emergence of innovation
Summary
The European Commission is aiming to boost economic growth and jobs with the European Cohesion Policy and the Strategies for Smart Specialisation (S3) initiative, as a part of the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The objective of S3 is economic development through regionally driven priorities that correspond to the efficiency, research and innovation-related demands of the knowledge economy and knowledge society It is about allocating the resources of research and innovation to enhance priority areas of regional funding, governance and regulation, forming a regional policy mix. Even if public institutions including HEIs are embedded into the regional innovation system, there might be a gap in understanding among university management personnel about what the regional challenges are [5]. The public HEIs and other research organisations have a role as a generator of new knowledge sub-systems. In small and less-developed regions, the role of public research organisations, like universities, is to have a more central role in generating and exploiting knowledge for firms and industries [4,8,9]. How do knowledge brokers increase the competitiveness and internationalisation of regions? In this regard, HEIs can take a role that influences the effectiveness, interaction or renewal of the actors’ work
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