Actor-networks, interests and boundary objects in the Cuban biotechnology sector and vaccine industry

Which social and political interests have been influential in the creation of the Cubanbiotechnology sector? Is it the needs of the national public health system that are being served, is it scientific knowledge production that is given priority, or arecommercialization and generation of export earnings the primary objectives? And how are potentially diverging interests mediated and articulated, and how are suchcontroversies settled and resolved? This paper is a first approximation to these questions.It turns out that the conceptual toolbox of field of innovation system studies is poorly developed for studying such issues, so by way of a criticism of the lack of agency andinterest perspectives in the concept of 'institutions' in innovation system studies analternative theoretical framework is developed based on actor-network theory.A second field work in Cuba is being planned, and the objective of this paper is toidentify some research strategies for that field work.