Regionaler Wissenstransfer aus Großforschungseinrichtungen. Angebotspotential, Nachfragestrukturen und bisherige Effekte in den Räumen Karlsruhe und Jülich/Aachen

Abstract

The transfer of knowledge from research laboratories to the economy is an important precondition for the competitiveness and innovative capacity of a firm. Economic geographers are particularly interested in the locational supply of this knowledge and its regional demand. Therefore research needs to focus on the nature and intensity of co-operation and network formations between scientific research institutes the local economy, and its public administration in a particular region . Furthermore there is the need to examine the spatial consequences these interaction generate. This paper examines the role of the federal German national laboratories as providers of pure and technilogical knowledge, as well as their ability to benefit a local region. It further analyses the structural conditions of the region to which the technology transfer is to take place. Furthermore, the institutional development, the research priorities and the locational distribution of the national laboratories within the former West Germany will also be outlined. A discussion follows on the efforts taken in regard to the development of the laboratories' transfer-potential in pursuit of economic innovations. Regional demand structures, which function as causal factors for the transfer of knowledge from the laboratories to their corresponding regions, are analysed subsequently. In order to identify specific regional transfer relationships, the laboratories in Karlsruhe and Jülich are examined in greater detail. An overall review summarises the general knowledge transfer trends from the national laboratories and offers some suggestions for future improvements.