The appointment of Prof Petra Ahrweiler to the national institute of technology management brings valuable expertise to the field

INNOVATION doesn't happen in any single organisation - it is a collaboration of various actors including industry and academia.

That's the view held by Prof Petra Ahrweiler, the newly appointed head of innovation and technology programmes at the National Institute of Technology Management at UCD.

She comes to the job with a very strong record in driving innovation.

Prior to her appointment in Dublin, she was with the Research Centre Media and Politics, University of Hamburg, where she was vice-head from 2002-2007. During this time she headed the Innovation Research programme with funding from the DFG Heisenberg Award.

Her expertise lies in collaborative innovation processes such as R&D networks in knowledge-intensive industries such as biotechnology and information, and communications technology.

At present Ahrweiler is on the management board for the EU-funded research project, Network Models, Governance and R&D Collaboration Networks (NEMO), and she is team leader for a work package on agent-based simulation of EU governance in science, technology and innovation (STI) policy. Her research investigates the governance rules the EU applied to research funding for programmes and how effective these were. She also advises policy makers on a national and EU level on the set up of innovative collaborative processes.

She is also participating and contributing to an international research study, "Complex Co-ordination over the Globe", which looks at policy research from an international perspective.

In her new role at NITM she is in the process of building up a research programme on STI policy. "STI policy is a research field responding to a growing awareness of the contributions that science, technology and innovation could make to economic progress and social welfare," she says.

"Its objectives are to undertake multidisciplinary academic research in STI developments and their impact on economy and society; generate new empirical data, methods, concepts and theories that explain its place in the global, as well as in the national economy.

Last but not least to advise government policymakers on the economic, social and political challenges presented by developments in science, technology and innovation; which includes work with firms to develop the tools and techniques needed to manage STI for maximum competitiveness."

Prof Ahrweiler also notes that her area of expertise has a particular relevance for the development of modern economies.

"In Europe's knowledge-based economies, the mechanisms of knowledge creation and utilisation have been changing, with an increasing emphasis on the formation of innovation networks, that is, networks of innovative firms, government agencies, research institutes and sources of venture capital," she says.

"Economic research considers the growing complexity of knowledge, the accelerating pace of the creation of knowledge, and the shortening of industry life cycles to be responsible for the rising importance of innovation networks.", Prof Ahrweiler adds.

"Combining knowledge resources in social networks enables innovation and learning that are difficult to provide by other means. Decreasing risks by distributing them to network members and accessing financial funds for the capital needed in product development are additional motives in these industries. Innovation happens in complex dynamic social systems," she explains.

It is on these complex and dynamic systems that her research is focused. "Of immediate concern is the national policy objective of creating a knowledge economy," she says.

"We have to do this and do it quickly. We need a strategy which will attract multinational companies to locate research and development and other higher value activities here.

"For this we need a better understanding of multinational strategy and behaviour in terms of how they spread these activities across locations. We also need to encourage high potential start-up indigenous firms to engage in these activities.

"Take a new drug, for example: The process might start with a PhD student in a university discovering a new gene sequence, that will move on to the university supporting the student in further development, then seeking out a partner to help with commercialisation," says Ahrweiler.

"That will probably be followed by the engagement of numerous other partners including the healthcare sector which has to provide testing facilities and so on. We have to understand how these networks grow and develop and how the state can best support them."

Managing technology and innovation

The National Institute of Technology Management (NITM) is the flagship organisation for technology management in Ireland. The Institute was established in 1997 with the support of Enterprise Ireland as part of the Government's initiative to develop innovation.

Located in University College Dublin, Ireland's largest university, it is an intercollegiate collaboration, drawing on and contributing to UCD's strengths in management, economics, engineering, computer science and life sciences.

The Institute's founding director was Prof Tom Allen of the Sloan School of Management at MIT who continues his association with NITM as chairman of its Academic Advisory Board.

Prof Allen was succeeded as director by Ian Cahill in 2004. "The Institute's specific role is to develop the technical entrepreneurs and professional managers of technological innovation who will lead companies to the international forefront," says Cahill.

"We pursue this mission by teaching, research, industry outreach and input to national policy."

The Institute has its academic home within the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and it draws on both industry and academia for leadership and direction.

"With our teaching programmes well established, we are currently expanding our research activities," says Cahill.

"These are critical to the Institute in fulfilling its mandate of making input to national policy as well as serving industry."

Applications are invited now for the MSc in Technology Management, commencing September 2007. This is a part-time programme, run over two years at the NITM at UCD Smurfit School.

For more information check: www.ucd.ie/nitm or email: nitm@ucd.ie