Quality control is an important and integrated part of the scientific system. However, developments in science and society are changing quality control into quality monitoring. New, virtual, and fluid organizational forms are emerging. Common boundaries are seen as being broken down as, for example, in the “triple helix” and the “mode 2” concepts. The stakeholders in science are showing an interest in being more involved in science. They want their evaluation criteria to be used, and they want evaluations to be (...) done on a regular basis because they do not trust the new scientific institutions to be left on their own. Quality monitoring changes the requirements for conducting evaluations as part of quality control. Assessing the societal value of research becomes increasingly important. Finally, quality monitoring emphasizes organizational learning rather than controlling quality in scientific organizations. (shrink)

A new approach in science policy making named the innovation system approach has been developed during the past three decades. Its primary goal is to better understand the processes through which scientific knowledge is produced and transferred to businesses to improve their competitiveness and develop national and/or regional economies. This approach has been adopted as an analytical framework and guideline for science policy making by numerous public sector organizations around the world. Using a case study of the Canadian and Québec (...) public sectors, our research seeks to understand why the IS approach has gained the adherence of government employees and how it has been disseminated from international organizations down to regional civil servants. Findings show that adherence to the IS approach stems from the prestige of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and its associated epistemic community, and from the cultural authority science exerts on government employees; these two factors bestow cultural authority onto the IS approach. The perceived scientific validity of the IS approach also leads government employees to consider its underlying economistic worldview as an unquestionable reality. (shrink)

Promoting collaboration between university researchers and practitioners from the business and public sectors has emerged as an important tool of science policy. This article examines the discourses that policy makers employ in promoting this strategy by analyzing the narratives about the social relevance of science and its role vis-à-vis the industrial sector in the context of strategic research funding in Sweden. Four dominant discourses on science are identified and discussed. It is argued that these policy frames construct a boundary between (...) research and practice, which is in turn used as rhetorical justification for research funding policies that seek to increase business influence and input to university research at the expense of academic autonomy in this sphere. (shrink)