Emerging New Roles of State, Business, University Actors in a Triple Helix Cooperation

In the following, we focus on the notion of the innovation ecosystem.

Innovation systems are characterised by intertwined roles of universities, companies and state agencies. Their close collaboration has been described as the “triple helix” core of such systems. Collaborating partners become so closely intertwined and interdependent that they increasingly develop co-creative formats where even research and innovation problems and challenges are defined conjointly.

With increasing interaction, the roles of state actors, businesses and state agencies are changing: State actors, in addition to their regulator and research funding role, often take on the role of facilitators and long-term enablers, as long-term infrastructural investors and developers, a role that Mazzucato points to in her analysis of the entrepreneurial state (2018b).

Businesses structure their development in open innovation networks around cooperation with university research groups, start-ups and other knowledge-based companies, counting on an enabling state for joint infrastructural investments and collaborative research funding.

The university takes on a central role in such innovation ecosystems, not just as a pipeline for knowledge and talents but also as a neutral moderator of thematic research areas and innovation hubs, upholding the long-term perspective of research, of technological foresight and societal reflection.

You can deepen your knowledge with the following recommended reading:

• Reichert, Sybille (2019): The Role of Universities in Regional Innovation Ecosystems, pp.50-53, 59-60.