Mats Benner
Professor
Will the Center Hold? What Research Centers Do to Universities and to Societal Challenges
Author
Editor
- P. Mattsson
- E. Perez Vico
- L. Salö
Summary, in English
Research centers represent a specific organizational format for linking the traditional university organization with external actors, goals, and processes in time-limited, concentrated efforts of research and collaboration. Yet, the center format contains large variations, and centers act as interfaces between university organizations, societal actors, and research funders in multifaceted ways. In this chapter, we focus analytically on the organizational structuration of universities and the influence of external funding on the steering of work modes and orientations of academic research. We ask what centers do, how they affect universities’ operations, and why some centers are more successful than others in their missions. We address these questions through an analysis of six centers within the 10-year Vinn Excellence and Berzelii center schemes run by the Swedish innovation Agency Vinnova, drawing on interviews, evaluation reports, and a broad range of archival data. We highlight great variations in how universities are influenced by center funding, which is most effective when aligned with internal university strategies. Center success depends on the fit and integration of internal and external ambitions, university strategies, and partner orientations. However, such alignment is merely reinforced, rather than altered, by external center support.
Department/s
- Research Policy
Publishing year
2024
Language
English
Pages
123-140
Publication/Series
Innovation, Technology and Knowledge Management
Volume
Part F2013
Document type
Book chapter
Publisher
Springer Gabler
Topic
- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Keywords
- Governance
- Higher education institutions
- Organization
- Research funding
- Steering
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 2197-5698
- ISSN: 2197-5701
- ISBN: 978-3-031-48799-6
- ISBN: 978-3-031-48798-9