Evolution Of Science Policy Research Articles

The evolution of science policy and innovation studies

This article examines the origins and evolution of the field of science policy and innovation studies (SPIS). Like other studies in this Special Issue, it seeks to systematically identify the key intellectual developments in the field over the last 50 years by analysing the publications that have been highly cited by other researchers. The analysis reveals how the emerging field of SPIS drew upon a growing range of disciplines in the late 1950s and 1960s, and how the relationship with these disciplines evolved over time. Around the mid-1980s, substantial parts of SPIS started to coalesce into a more coherent field centred on the adoption of an evolutionary (or neo-Schumpeterian) economics framework, an interactive model of the innovation process, and (a little later) the concept of ‘systems of innovation’ and the resource-based view of the firm. The article concludes with a discussion of whether SPIS is perhaps in the early stages of becoming a discipline.

Accelerators and national security the evolution of science policy for high‐energy physics, 1947–1967

Historical analysis of the evolution of science policy for high‐energy physics from 1947–1967 shows how national security concerns played a role in this branch of fundamental science. The Manhattan Engineer District (MED) of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers supported particle accelerators after World War II demonstrated the military utility of particle accelerator technology for isotope separation, the transferability of technological skills from accelerator building to other technologies such as radar development, and the usefulness of particle accelerators in making the physical measurements required in the early stages of the design of nuclear weapons. Although the Atomic Energy Commission initially was disinclined to support further particle accelerator development, it was persuaded to support accelerator projects to advance understanding of the nuclear forces that underlay fission and other nuclear processes, to promote the health of the AEC Laboratories, and to ensure a supply of trained scientific ...