Paul Benneworth
Professor of Innovation and Regional Development
Paul Benneworth is a Professor of Innovation and Regional Development at the Department of Business Administration and Social Sciences at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. Paul’s research focuses on the dynamics of innovation and societal change and in particular the ways in which partnerships of researchers, policy-makers and practitioners try to use various kinds of knowledge to stimulate socio-economic development.
Contact Details
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Biography
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Paul Benneworth is a Professor of Innovation and Regional Development at the Department of Business Administration and Social Sciences at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. Paul’s research focuses on the dynamics of innovation and societal change and in particular the ways in which partnerships of researchers, policy-makers and practitioners try to use various kinds of knowledge to stimulate socio-economic development. Paul leads the Working Group on SSH Research Impact in ENRESSH, the COST-funded European Network for Research Evaluation in the Social Sciences and Humanities and is co-leader of the Marie-Curie Slodowska Training Network RUNIN (The Role of Universities in Innovation and Regional Development).
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University research and regional development. SOTA Review No 25
Published: 14 March 2019
University research contributes to regional development through the way it becomes incorporated into different kinds of ‘products’ that make technological knowledge more accessible for local innovating companies. However, universities do not exclusively contribute through their research; their expenditure effects can be important, and teaching activities building regional human capital can also contribute to region’s territorial innovation capacity.
University research contributes in many different ways to regional development, not only through formal commercialisation activities and supporting human capital development, but also through informal engagement & strategic leadership activities. Universities’ main role is as a connection point to global knowledge resources in ways that make that knowledge more easily available to local partners. This means that universities’ regional development contributions are strongly shaped by the regional absorption capacity for the knowledge they import: in less favoured regions their contribution needs infrastructure to help less-innovative firms absorb new knowledge. Moreover, regional development is never a core mission for universities in comparison to teaching and research: stimulating a regional mission involves creating opportunities for mutually beneficial interaction between universities and regional partners.
