Evolution of Innovation Networks
Supervisor: Dr Colin Pilbeam
Research and development activities increasingly require collaboration between individuals or research groups who are often based in separate organizations (universities, institutes, private companies and so on). These innovation activities create a network of interactions between individuals that generally are enduring, commonly resulting in repeated collaborative activities.Assuming this depiction of the pattern of relationships, a number of intriguing questions emerge:
- What happens to the network of remaining relationships when individuals or groups disappear (through retirement for example)?
- When individuals from an existing group move to another organization does this create a new node in the network?
- What are the characteristics of this node and how do the connections surrounding the original node change?
- How does the network of relationships evolve?
- Are changes in the policy or funding environments observable in the pattern of relationships?
Of course there may be other questions that can be investigated.
Using a 30 year data set of funded research projects from one of the UK research councils, this project seeks to answer some of these questions using social network analysis tools. It may also be possible to augment this information with interviews with key players or groups in these innovation networks.
Candidate requirements:
- Ideally the candidate would have skills in quantitative methods.
Contact Details:
Dr Colin Plibeam
colin.pilbeam@cranfield.ac.uk
Tel: 01234 754450