Mapping the International Evolution of Collaboration Networks on Patents Granted to Universities around the World

该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术与创新学会(STS)和科学与创新政策(Science Of Science And Innovation Policy)项目共同资助，研究知识如何在世界各地的学术科学发明家之间流动。大学专利是本研究的分析对象，因为专利既反映了知识的生产，也反映了知识的传播。通过分析发明家和机构在授予世界各地大学的专利方面的合作，解决了以下问题：知识如何在学术发明家之间流动？国家特征、国家政策和制度实践如何塑造知识传播？个别学术发明家在多大程度上引导着知识的流动？从政策的角度，审查了《贝赫-多尔法案》的国际影响--这是一项两党立法努力，旨在促进工业、科学院和联邦实验室之间的技术开发和转让。本研究结合网络分析、网络可视化、专利引文分析、时序分析和专题分析等方法论方法，将知识扩散作为一个复杂的系统进行追踪。本项目：展示世界各地学术发明家和组织间网络之间的重要关系；分析专利作为重要知识传播过程的人工制品；描述全球大学专利科学合作的形式、结构和演变。本研究结果将为组织和科技政策制定者设计和实施知识传播和创新政策提供大量信息。本研究旨在对复杂系统和知识扩散过程的理论知识做出基础性的贡献。

This project, which is co-funded by the Science, Technology & Society (STS) and Science of Science and Innovation Policy (SciSIP) Programs at NSF, studies how knowledge flows between and among academic scientific inventors around the world. University patents are the object of analysis for this study because patents reflect both knowledge production and diffusion. By analyzing collaborations between inventors and institutions on patents granted to universities around the world, the following questions are addressed: How does knowledge flow between academic inventors? How do country characteristics, national policies, and institutional practices shape knowledge diffusion? To what extent do individual academic inventors direct the flow of knowledge? From a policy perspective, the international impact of the Bayh-Dole Act--a bipartisan legislative effort to facilitate technology development and transfers between industry, the academy and federal laboratories--is examined. This study traces knowledge diffusion as a complex system by combining methodological approaches that include network analysis, network visualization, patent citation analysis, temporal analysis, and topical analysis. This project: demonstrates important relationships between academic inventors and inter-organizational networks around the world; analyzes patents as an artifact of important processes of knowledge diffusion; and describes the shape, structure and evolution of scientific collaborations on university patents around the globe.The findings of this study will provide substantive information that may be of use to organizations and science and technology policymakers in designing and implementing policies for knowledge diffusion and innovation. This study intends to make fundamental contributions to theoretical knowledge about complex systems and processes of knowledge diffusion.