Different types of research organisations exist in Colombia. Technological Development Centres - CDTs - are private institutions mainly created to perform applied R&D and technological services focused on solving their productive sectors' real necessities. They are becoming the most important type of organisation. This is due to different reasons: first, the global trend to reduce government funding for supporting R&D, which is especially true in Colombia, which has to face continuing and serious political and economical difficulties. A second reason is the movement at a worldwide level towards entering a stage of commercial science where knowledge production, diffusion and use are equally important. Therefore, the CDTs' condition as "applied and marketised knowledge producers" makes them an integral element of the process Colombia is currently facing to become a knowledge society. Ensuring the improvement of these centres' performance will contribute to the increase of productivity and competitiveness of the productive sectors they serve, and consequently of the nation as a whole. In this framework, the thesis mainly sets its contribution on the evaluation and monitoring of the centres' function, having as its main question: "How a methodology for structuring an evaluation and monitoring system of Colombian CDTs that supports the improvement of their performance, should be developed, such that features and relationships between them are taken into account". The research strategy combines inductive and deductive strategies using qualitative and quantitative data, collected through semi-structured interviews and documentation analysis provided by Co1ciencias, the primary Government agency for science and technology policy, as well as questionnaires applied to CDTs' directors and / or assistants, policy makers, academics and companies having a relationship with the centres. From this study, it is possible to learn that public and private support to the centres' activities is needed to avoid the contradiction or challenge they are currently facing, because according to Colciencias they should be "public knowledge producers" contributing to the improvement of the country's productivity and competitiveness,' but they must simultaneously be selfsustainable. There is a need to redefine innovation policies to recognise and focus on SMEs as the most representative group of the Colombian productive sector and hence the main potential users of the centres' services. A reclassification of the centres in CDTs and CGTs is required to make clear mission and services they should offer in accordance with their capacities and strategic priorities. On this basis, the development of each centre's performance evaluation and monitoring procedure in the framework of a management system previously defined by each of them, to ensure the fulfilment of their mission as well as the right use of their resources, is imperative.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:629638 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Barreto, Gloria |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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