Funded Research Project

Project Title: Boundary making and strategy making in knowledge-forming organisations

Chief Investigators: Professor Simon Marginson and Professor Mark Considine (Faculty of Arts)

Administering Organisation: The University of Melbourne

Funded by: ARC Discovery Project grant 2008-2010

Project Summary: Government policy is devoted to bettering linkages between university research and commercial product development in the knowledge economy. Yet little is known of relationships between university and non-university knowledge forming organisations (KFOs) and what policies and resources sustain and adjust the border between them. Different countries approach these issues in distinctive ways, in part because of public policy, in part through different endogenous dynamics. Using case study research in five countries, the project will identify ways the division of labour between different KFOs can be optimised, while sustaining their respective strengths, and maximising the opportunities for strategy and innovation.