Universities in peripherals countries: Researching ‘in the regions’ or ‘for the regions’? – Some experience based on the University of Évora

Abstract

In a scenario where the universities do not make more use of the monopoly of the production of scientific knowledge, to remain in the vanguard of knowledge, university researchers will have to exchange knowledge with others, including producers of knowledge such as companies or other organizations (Schuetze, 2000:189). From the establishment of diverse relations between universities and companies, both institutions gain (Antonelli, 2001:26-27). In the universities, the teachers and researchers are presented with specific technological problems, which has a positive effect on the research undertaken. The companies, in their turn, have access, at reduced cost, to a body of ability in relation to advanced techniques and to a specialized infrastructure that is often characterized by a great indivisibility and strong fixed costs. The effect of the research done in the HEI, or other units, is particularly important for SME’s- the predominant companies in the Alentejo, as well as in the majority of the regions of the interior of Portugal – insofar as the companies are those which most need to look to the exterior for technological developments capable of promoting improvements in the efficiency of their productive processes. Large companies, in their turn, if they do not have R&D units installed, look for these processes near to their headquarters, or in companies of the same group, or in companies where such exists, through acquisition mechanisms, through co-operation or by other means. Conceição Rego Economics Department University of Évora In the most peripheral regions (Rosa Pires, Rodrigues, e Castro, 1998: 3), the concept of the triple helix, a metaphor illustrative of the relations between higher education, the productive system and the government, has come to be considered as an essential factor in stimulating and/or strengthening development strategies. The main argument developed presents the idea that the installation of innovative dynamics in a regional economy depends on the capacity of the region to synthesize three pairs of attributes: i) Coherence and diversity of the regional productive system; ii) Competition and cooperation and iii) Access to tacit and codified economic knowledge.