The Centre for Innovation & Structural Change (CISC) secures funding to carry out a study on a Doctoral Programme in Innovation Studies

Tuesday 21st November 2006

The Centre for Innovation & Structural Change (CISC), J.E. Cairnes Graduate School of Business & Public Policy has recently been successful in securing funding from the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Science (IRCHSS) and Irish Research Council for Science Engineering and Technology (IRCSET) to scope out a study for a Doctoral Programme in Innovation Studies. The award was made under the Graduate Research Education Programme � Exploratory Grants for 2006/2007.

The broad aim of this exploratory grant is to create a consortium of Irish universities, to train a critical mass of doctoral students in the gamut of innovation studies. It is a multidimensional, cross-disciplinary programme encompassing a diverse and manifold set of academic disciplines and research areas in economics, geography, business management, strategy, information systems and human resource development. It will entail the formation of a consortium of Irish universities coordinated by the Centre for Innovation and Structural Change (CISC) at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Specifically, it aims to delineate a world class graduate research programme that will leverage and build upon the research expertise and international collaborations that CISC has already established, create a world-class research programme in innovation studies, generate a critical mass of academic researchers, policy makers, entrepreneurs and enterprise managers from a variety of discipline areas in the gamut of innovation studies and be sustained by a collaborative partnership between academic institutions, enterprise and government. The nature of the research as proposed necessitates such connectivity and diversity.

The programme, whilst rooted in the social sciences, will complement and support research activities in the natural sciences by investigating the innovation process, technology transfer and the commercialisation of scientific advances. Progress towards a true and fully-functioning knowledge economy will be not only evaluated but guided by the research. The grant will be used to investigate innovation in its widest sense. Its desirability, applicability, breadth and scope will be assessed with discussants and informants from a diverse array of disciplines and sectors of society.