Studies of Externally Funded Research and Development Projects in Higher Education: Knowledge Sources and Transfers

Abstract

This study is addressing the question: how can sources of knowledge be understood and realized in externally funded research and development (R&D) projects. In this study, knowledge sources and transfers are concerned with identifying, creating, and disseminating of knowledge which is rooted in collaborative research settings and, in particular, in the context of learning from international research undertakings. Data were collected within the real R&D projects accepted by the European Union and the Finnish Programmes for Research and Innovations. The study focused on six knowledge sources and knowledge transfers in the form of: 1) knowledge transition and sharing, such as shared or diffused knowledge; 2) knowledge transformation, such as knowledge from legacy service-systems or cultures; 3) inquired knowledge from domain or field, such as traditional acquisition related knowledge; 4) focused knowledge or led knowledge, such as regional R&D agenda or research consortium connected knowledge which can be adopted for radical innovations; 5) knowledge co-creation and knowledge building, such as improving knowledge collectively upon experience, quality or action data; and 6) artifact and service related embedded-implicit knowledge, such as knowledge inside a service-system which can only be observed. The research findings of this study are in line with the literature and previous studies that argue that knowledge itself is an increasingly important source to competitive advantage, and a key to the success of modern organizations and creative higher education, strengthening the collective expertise, industry-service clusters, employees and competitiveness in global economy.