Co-sciences Fostering research based on social issues

The aim of the CO-SCIENCES project is to foster research by gathering social questions, particularly those posed by companies.

On the basis of complex environmental questions, which cut across the whole of society, the project partners will design and test mechanisms for facilitating science/business discussions and will analyse how relations are established between researchers and heads of companies. The focus of the study will be the relatively small geographical area of west Brittany where the project partners are based and where significant numbers of researchers are involved in environmental issues.

Several studies have already analysed knowledge transfer between research labs and companies. In particular, they have emphasised the importance of proximity and of networks for innovations to materialise. Public policymakers in France have taken on board these analyses, creating the conditions for this proximity by firstly developing technopoles and then clusters of economic competitiveness as a means of bringing the worlds of research and business closer together.

Researchers and companies now meet on a daily basis. But the question remains of how much is known of the scientific issues discussed and how the resulting innovations - whether scientific, technological, structural or social - can be evaluated.

By providing answers to these questions, improvements can be made to the mechanisms for exchanges between the science and business communities.