Research Projects

As part of our ongoing efforts, we run and host a number of different activities. Below is a selection of recent projects that CIMR members have been involved in:

Innovation Intermediaries and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The project is funded by the British Academy/Leverhulm and is led by Dr Federica Rossi (Birkbeck), Dr Annalisa Caloffi (University of Florence, Italy) and Professor Margherita Russo (University of Modena-Reggio Emilia, Italy). The aim of the project is to investigate the role of innovation intermediaries (organisations that facilitate business innovation by providing R&D assistance, brokering, bridging and other knowledge-intensive services) in supporting company adoption of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies such as Robotics and the Internet of Things. Learn more here.

Making Business Innovation Accessible to Diverse Groups

The purpose of this research project is to understand and explain where support for innovators in Black, Asian and Minority ethnic (BAME) and disabled groups is available in the UK. Birkbeck’s Professor Helen Lawton Smith (Department of Management) and a team started their project at the beginning of 2020 and will map the  provision of support for people from BAME and disabled groups of business innovators. Details can be found on the Birkbeck website.

Deep-Tech Entrepreneurship in City Capitals – The Case of Quantum Technology Start-Ups

Helen Lawton Smith has been awarded a BEI School Grant to work with Saverio Romeo on a study of Deep-Tech Entrepreneurship in City Capitals – The Case of Quantum Technology Start-Ups. This project will continue the collaboration with Professor Erran Carmel in the Kogod School of Business, American University with which the BEI School/Birkbeck has a Memorandum of Understanding.

DIME Working Papers

The CIMR worked with the Dynamics of Institutions and Markets in Europe to produce a number of working paper on Intellectual Property Rights. Details can be found in our Publications section, and the associated DIME website.

TRIGGER

Transforming Institutions by Gendering Contents and Gaining Equality in Research (TRIGGER) was started in 2014 at Birkbeck and has grown since. It looks at increasing the number of women in those university sectors where they are underrepresented. TRIGGER has a website of its own.

Birkbeck Enterprise Hub

The Birkbeck Enteprise Hub was ran by the CIMR and our then Entrepreneur-In-Residence, Andrew Atter. Its goal was to be a student-led forum bringing the hottest entrepreneurial people and ideas into Birkbeck.

Research Impact: Developing Analytics and Policy (RIDAP)

In December 2016, Birkbeck hosted a workshop on ‘Measuring the Impact of Academic Research: Best Practices and Open Questions’, which sought to provide an up-to-date assessment of recent research in the field of impact research, specifically to unpack some of the issues and concepts around impact and to have an informed policy debate around such issues.

The workshop concluded by announcing the creation of a new impact research and policy network, RIDAP, the running of a quarterly workshop series, and the establishment of a newsletter for the network on this topic. The RIDAP Briefing Paper #1 can be found in our Research section.

Uddevalla Symposium 2016

The Uddevalla Symposium is a yearly symposium that looking at such topics as economic geography, entrepreneurship, international business, management, political science, regional economics, small business economics, sociology and urban and regional planning. The CIMR and Birkbeck hosted the 19th Uddevalla Symposium in 2016. You can find more information at the Uddevalla Symposium website.

Innovation Dynamics and the Role of the Knowledge Infrastructure

This project by Dr Marion Frenz and Dr Ray Lambert aimed to develop and strengthen the evidence base on the patterns of business innovation over time, including the implications for economic performance. In particular it brings together and extends evidence about the role of intellectual property, both formal rights and more strategic means of protecting innovations, and the interactions of IP with the knowledge infrastructure (the UK measurement system, the use of standards and accreditation, as well as design activities). It attempted to quantify these elements of the infrastructure and to link these with innovation modes and performance.

Health Ties

Framework 7 Programme HealthTIES was a consortium that gathered four of Europe’s top regions in biosciences, medical technology and health entrepreneurship: Medical Delta (West of the Netherlands), Oxford and Thames Valley (United Kingdom), Canton of Zurich (Switzerland), Biocat (Catalonia), and the mentoring region of Észak-Alföld in Hungary. The consortium was baked by the European Commission. The project involved the CIMR researchers; Helen Lawton Smith, Pierre Nadeau, Saverio Romeo, and Rupert Waters.

A selection of other projects involving the centre or affiliated academics.

  • Project on Innovation for Global Challenges in a connected world; the role of local resources and socio economics conditions. (Daniele Archibugi) 2021-2023 Project led by Daniele Archibugi, INRCI-IRPPS, University of Turin, University of Urbino and University of Roma Tre, Italy.
  • U-KNOW: Understanding the relationship between knowledge and competitiveness in the enlarging European Union. EU Specific Targeted Research Project (STRP). 01/03/2006 – 28/02/2009: Birgitte Andersen is coordinating Work Package 3.2 on “An IPR Regime in Support of a Knowledge Based Economy”.
  • Project on Science and technology indicators to assess the competitive position of advanced countries, Italian National Research Council. (Daniele Archibugi)  2006-2009. Project led by Daniele Archibugi at CNR-IRPPS, Italy
  • Project on Organizational Innovation MEDOW, European Commission. (Collaborator: Daniele Archibugi) 2008-2010. Project led by Ned Lorenz at GREDEG-CNRS, France
  • Project on Science and Technology in Large and Small Firms, European Science Foundation. 2007-2009. Project co-directed by Daniele Archibugi, IRPPS-CNR, and Alfonso Gambardella, University Bocconi Milan
  • Project on Cosmopolitan Democracy: The State of the Art, Italian National Research Council. 2008-2009. Project led by Daniele Archibugi at CNR-IRPPS
  • Project on Measuring Innovation, Italian National Research Council. (Collaborator: Daniele Archibugi). January 2009 to December 2010. Project led by Hugo Hollanders for European Commission’s DG Enterprises, at Merit, The Netherlands.