EUPRO - A reference database on project-based R&D collaboration networks.

The EUPRO database enables the analysis of participation patterns of organisations in and across different European R&D funding initiatives and the investigation of resulting collaborative R&D network structures and dynamics. The perimeter of EUPRO is currently more than 600,000 R&D projects funded by European (EU, transnational or national) research funding organisations, comprising systematic information about contents of the R&D projects, their participating organizations (including organisation type and location), and a number of additional characteristics (e.g. underlying policy instrument and programme). This scientific data descriptor serves as illustrative information source for users, both from science as well as from policy. It discusses the conceptual background and derives respective analytical opportunities for different actual, highly relevant debates in innovation studies and related fields. Moreover, the data collection process is described in a compact manner, as well as how the collected data are harmonized and aggregated into a suitable data model for analytical purposes. Finally, we put forward issues of technical validation, data quality and enrichment, and usage notes on how to access EUPRO.

The geographical dynamics of global R&D collaboration networks in robotics: Evidence from co-patenting activities across urban areas worldwide.

The focus of this study is on the geography of robotics Research and Development (R&D) activities. The objectives are, first, to identify hotspots in robotics R&D worldwide, and second, to characterise structures and dynamics of global robotics R&D collaboration networks through detailed geographical lenses of global urban areas. We use patents as marker for R&D activities, and accordingly focus on technologically oriented R&D, drawing on information from patents applied for between 2002 and 2016. We employ an appropriate search strategy to identify relevant robotics patents based on detailed levels of the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) and assign patents to more than 900 global urban areas based on the inventor addresses. The co-patent networks are examined from a Social Network Analysis (SNA) perspective by means of robotics co-patents, contributing to a global network where urban areas are the nodes inter-linked by joint inventive activities recorded in robotics patents. Global SNA measures illustrate structures and dynamics of the network as a whole, while local measures indicate the specific positioning and roles of urban areas in the network. The results are original in characterising the global spatial emergence of this generic new industry, highlighting prominent urban hotspots in terms of specialisation in robotics R&D, pointing to a global shift reflected by the increasing role of emerging economies, in particular China. The global robotics R&D has grown significantly both in total patenting and also in terms of R&D collaboration activities between urban areas. Also, for the networks, growth is not equally distributed, but is rather characterised by significant spatial shifts, both in terms of cities declining or climbing up the specialisation ranking, but even more in terms of the spatial network structure.

Global landscape of patents related to human coronaviruses.

At present, the COVID-19 pandemic is running rampant, having caused 2.18 million deaths. Characterizing the global patent landscape of coronaviruses is essential not only for informing research and policy, given the current pandemic crisis, but also for anticipating important future developments. While patents are a promising indicator of technological knowledge production widely used in innovation research, they are often an underused resource in biological sciences. In this study, we present a patent landscape for the seven coronaviruses known to infect humans. The information included in this paper provides a strong intellectual groundwork for the ongoing development of therapeutic agents and vaccines along with a deeper discussion of intellectual property rights under epidemic conditions. The results show that there has been a rapid increase in human coronavirus patents, especially COVID-19 patents. China and the United States play an outstanding role in global cooperation and patent application. The leading role of academic institutions and government is increasingly apparent. Notable technological issues related to human coronaviruses include pharmacochemical treatment, diagnosis of viral infection, viral-vector vaccines, and traditional Chinese medicine. Furthermore, a critical challenge lies in balancing commercial competition, enterprise profit, knowledge sharing, and public interest.

The dynamics of global R&D collaboration networks in ICT: Does China catch up with the US?

The purpose of this study is to identify and characterize the structure and dynamics of global R&D collaboration networks in ICT by analyzing cross-country co-patents, with a special focus on the role of China. We employ a Social Network Analysis (SNA) perspective, using information on more than 77 thousand co-patents from 2001-2015. These co-patents are disaggregated by three time periods and four ICT subsectors. Global measures for the network as a whole, as well as local measures on the positioning of countries in the networks are interpreted. The empirical results are highly interesting. First, international R&D collaboration networks in ICT show a dynamic transformation in becoming larger in magnitude (more countries but also more inter-linkages), less centralized and more densely connected, though with varying degrees across ICT subsectors. Second, the powerful position of the US weakens relatively compared to other, increasingly connected countries, in particular China. While China has already surpassed the US in total patenting in ICT in 2015, China is now also catching up from a network perspective shown by its growing central position over the observed time period.

China's landscape in oncology drug research: perspectives from research collaboration networks.

OBJECTIVE: Better understanding of China's landscape in oncology drug research is of great significance for discovering anti-cancer drugs in future. This article differs from previous studies by focusing on Chinese oncology drug research communities in co-publication networks at the institutional level. Moreover, this research aims to explore structures and behaviors of relevant research units by thematic community analysis and to address policy recommendations. METHODS: This research used social network analysis to define an institutions network and to identify a community network which is characterized by thematic content. RESULTS: A total of 675 sample articles from 2008 through 2012 were retrieved from the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) database of Web of Science, and top institutions and institutional pairs are highlighted for further discussion. Meanwhile, this study revealed that institutions based in the Chinese mainland are located in a relatively central position, Taiwan's institutions are closely assembled on the side, and Hong Kong's units located in the middle of the Chinese mainland's and Taiwan's. Spatial division and institutional hierarchy are still critical barriers to research collaboration in the field of anti-cancer drugs in China. In addition, the communities focusing on hot research areas show the higher nodal degree, whereas communities giving more attention to rare research subjects are relatively marginalized to the periphery of network. CONCLUSIONS: This paper offers policy recommendations to accelerate cross-regional cooperation, such as through developing information technology and increasing investment. The brokers should focus more on outreach to other institutions. Finally, participation in topics of common interest is conducive to improved efficiency in research and development (R&D) resource allocation.

Is the United States still dominant in the global pharmaceutical innovation network?

The dramatic growth of research and development activities in the pharmaceutical sector in emerging economies raises the question of whether the United States still keeps its dominant role in the global pharmaceutical innovation landscape. This paper focuses on investigating the role of the United States in global pharmaceutical innovation, and differs from previous studies by shifting attention to a network analytic perspective to track the global distribution of pharmaceutical inventions. Our sample is composed of key patents covering all new drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration between 1996 and 2010. The results show that the United States still dominates in the global pharmaceutical innovation network, especially when it comes to essential core inventions. However, the United States shows a slightly decreasing prominence in the networks of either total new drugs or New Molecular Entity (NME) drugs in the time period 2006-2010 as compared to previous time periods, revealed by subtle traces of network centralities.