National research priorities are often the outcome of negotiations between multiple research stakeholders. These stakeholders include groups of research ‘users’, which means that the negotiation processes are no longer controlled by ‘science’. In this paper, we explore the use of the...

Scientists in academia have struggled to adjust to a policy climate of uncertain funding and loss of freedom from direction and control. How UK life scientists have negotiated this challenge, and with what consequences for their research and the research system, is the empirical entrance point...

The landscape of science is changing radically. In particular, there is increasing heterogeneity of actors, research sites, knowledge and networks. Science policy-makers have to respond to these changes, but heterogeneity makes it more difficult to impose own goals on the research system. Yet,...

The UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has placed considerable emphasis on the users of the research it supports. Researchers have in turn pointed to the potential uses of the work they do as a means of demonstrating relevance. However, to date, researchers and research funders have...

A number of policies have been developed in Europe, to facilitate the scientific and commercial development of high-technology sectors. How effective have these policies been? This paper addresses this question by exploring the impacts of policy on the development of biotechnology in the Member...