Science and Technology Parks (STPs) have been promoted during the last 40 years by governments as key instruments to support innovation, technological development and economic growth. They were motivated by the success of places like the Silicon Valley and based on what theory identified as the positive role of physical proximity between R&D and production activity for knowledge exchange, technology transfer, synergies development and the creation of innovation. However, there is mixed empirical evidence in the literature regarding the success of STPs in technologically advanced countries and regions that cast doubts about their viability and their theoretical underpinnings. Yet despite this mixed evidence, governments and decision-makers have increasingly resorted to STPs as a means to promote innovation and growth in lagging European regions. This study examines this paradox by assessing the feasibility of creating successful STPs in lagging regions of the European Union (EU) and examines how the local regional context, their design and characteristics affect their performance. The analysis compares the innovation intensity, the linkages supporting knowledge and innovation creation, the formation of New Technology Based firms, and the broader regional impact of the STPs in four Parks located in four lagging regions of Southern Europe. The results support the initial hypothesis that lagging regions are not supportive environments for the creation of successful STPs. The Parks have remained primarily real-estate projects. They do concentrate R&D and innovative activity at levels above those of their regional context but linkages and knowledge and technology transfer remain largely absent and the NTBFs formation records poor. Their role in their regions' technological development is marginal, as most technologically advanced activities tend to remain disconnected from their local economy. A weak local technological base and the absence of genuine demand for the STPs' mechanisms and cooperation processes limit critically their impact. The comparison of the four cases reveals however that professional management structures, increased and dedicated public resources, the promoters' long-term commitment and their integration in broader regional innovation support strategies enhance the Parks' prospects of success.

This thesis presents results of a study of the strategy adopted by UK research associations which led to success. The success of research associations, being not for profit organisations, was measured in terms of sustainable growth. Research associations were established as a result of a government initiative to improve the performance of sectors of British industry. Initially they were financed by way of membership subscriptions and a related government grant. With the decline in the size ofthe manufacturing sectors they served and the removal of government grant, research associations have had to make the transition from publicly supported co-operative research associations to independent privately financed research institutes. The identification of the strategy was based on the analysis of documentary archival, interview and questionnaire data. A case study approach was adopted. The research associations were selected and evaluated in pairs to reduce the effect of the external environment, including the influence of the sector the research associations served. Pilot interviews indicated the importance of governance as well as strategy to these organisations. The study therefore included consideration of research associations' governance. The data collected and analysed for case study research associations enabled both their strategy and governance to be classified using the theoretical models of Whittington (2001) and Cornforth (2003) respectively. The more successful research associations were found to have adopted an evolutionary perspective on strategy and a partnership model of organisational governance. Size contributed to success, with the larger research associations exhibiting superior sustainable growth.

Biases in medical research are becoming acknowledged as a serious and increasing problem for medicine all over the world. They compromise the evaluation of the real effects of drugs, and jeopardise the possibility of evidence-based decisions and knowledge in medical practice. The current measures adopted to attempt to reduce them, although important and necessary, seem to have had only a limited effect. The fundamental aim of this study is to be a piece of exploratory research on the possible factors involved in medical education that can be related to the existence of bias in medical research. The randomised controlled trial, the main research method in much of medical research, is analysed concerning its strengths and weaknesses as a scientific instrument and the most common biases that may occur in this research method are evaluated. Questionnaires and interviews with students and teachers of five medical schools in Parana State (Brazil) were used to appraise aspects of a potential connection between medical education and the aforementioned problems in medical research. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the data obtained were performed. The level of awareness about bias in research, in these schools, was evaluated as insufficient and fragmentary. Some critical obstacles, related to the transmission of knowledge about bias to the students, were identified. There is evidence that, at least in the schools involved in this research, the problem of bias is considered as a minor issue, when compared with other structural and educational problems. Possible solutions to the problem of low level of awareness about bias in research were collected by the research instruments employed, and are discussed in regard to their potential efficacy and feasibility.

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This International Workshop is a high quality seminar providing a forum for the exchange of scientific achievements between research communities of different universities and research institutes in the area of innovation information technologies. It is a continuation of the Russian-German Workshops that have been organized by the universities in Dresden, Karlsruhe and Ufa before. The workshop was arranged in 9 sessions covering the major topics: Modern Trends in Information Technology, Knowledge Based Systems and Semantic Modelling, Software Technology and High Performance Computing, Geo-Information Systems and Virtual Reality, System and Process Engineering, Process Control and Management and Corporate Information Systems.

This International Workshop is a high quality seminar providing a forum for the exchange of scientific achievements between research communities of different universities and research institutes in the area of innovation information technologies. It is a continuation of the Russian-German Workshops that have been organized by the universities in Dresden, Karlsruhe and Ufa before. The workshop was arranged in 9 sessions covering the major topics: Modern Trends in Information Technology, Knowledge Based Systems and Semantic Modelling, Software Technology and High Performance Computing, Geo-Information Systems and Virtual Reality, System and Process Engineering, Process Control and Management and Corporate Information Systems.

[...] Le sujet de cette thèse intervient dans le cadre du projet DEFI et vise à caractériser la notion d'Efficience Inventive en Conception afin d'élaborer des moyens de mesure de cette dernière. L’objectif étant à terme d’aboutir à l'adoption d’indicateurs aidant les entreprises à situer leurs capacités inventives en R&D. Par la suite, les entreprises ayant adopté ces indicateurs pourront, le cas échéant, entamer des actions d'évolution de leurs pratiques afin que la valeur de ces indicateurs évolue dans le sens recherché. Aux vues de la diversité des typologies d’entreprises et l’ampleur d’un tel sujet, notre recherche est focalisée sur les projets de conception de produits au sein des départements R&D de l’industrie automobile. Afin de mener cette recherche et définir les indicateurs de l’efficience inventive, nous avons étudié dans un premier temps les critères inhérents à la conception inventive. Selon nos travaux, la mesure de la performance inventive est corrélée à l’efficience inventive et doit considérer son efficacité par des caractéristiques ciblées, l’étude des connaissances impliquées et des ressources consommées. Notre mesure de l’efficience inventive est aussi basée sur l’analyse des flux des connaissances en jeu tout au long du processus d’innovation technologique, et particulièrement dans la phase de pré-développement. Elle analyse la relation entre ce qui est reçu et ce qui est appliqué ou consommé par rapport à l’inventivité. La mesure de l’inventivité est alors basée sur l’évaluation de l’idéalité, la nouveauté et l’utilité de ce qui sort du processus de conception de produit. L’ensemble des méthodes d’évaluation développées dans ce travail pour chaque critère d’inventivité, et l’efficience inventive, sont intégrés dans un système d’évaluation concret nommé IDPMS (Inventive Design Performance Measurement System) destiné à aider les directeurs des projets de la conception de produit et R&D à observer la performance inventive des équipes projet, et tenter d’améliorer les activités inventives. Donc, ce travail se catégorise dans le domain des sciences de l’ingénieur. Depuis plus de deux décennies, notre laboratoire (le LGéCo) travaille à la construction, d’abord théorique, puis déclinée en méthodes et outils, de nouvelles approches destinées à accompagner les mutations industrielles de l’ère de la qualité vers l’ère de l’innovation. A cet égard, cette thèse fournira un chaînon manquant : celui qui concerne l’évaluation, et la mesure de ce qui caractérise l’amont de l'innovation afin d’aider les entreprises à entrer, par rapport à ces dernières, en logique de performance. / [...] This thesis was defined in the DEFI project to characterize the notion of efficiency in Inventive Design, and develop the metrics of inventive-design. The objective of this proposal is to define inventive performance indicators to enhance the creative capacity in the automotive industry. The research is focused on the NPD projects of R&D department, which are known as the responsible of technological evolutions. In this respect, the main elements of design performance, and the main criteria of inventiveness are studied and merged together. The inventive performance of a R&D team is concerned with the efficiency of their activities to create inventive designs when they apply existing knowledge, and/or use creative resources. This analyzes the relationship between what is received and what is applied or consumed to achieve higher inventiveness degree. The measures of inventiveness are based on the evaluation of novelty, resourcefulness, and usefulness of what comes out from design activities. All the evaluation methods developed in this work are integrated into a concrete system as IDPMS (Inventive Design Performance Measurement System), and an initial version of the IDPMS application is developed, by which R&D and project managers can observe the inventive performance of their NPD projects. So this work is categorized in Engineering Science for specifying performance indicators of inventive design activities. In recent years, our laboratory (LGeCo) focused on developing theoretical methods, then appropriate tools to accompany the industrial changes from the era of quality to the era of innovation. In this regard, this thesis provides the missing link of this effort by evaluating the main characteristics of inventions in engineering level to help companies enter into a logic performance along their innovation projects.