Title: Biotechnology policies and performance in central and eastern Europe

Authors: Jacqueline Senker, Christien Enzing, Thomas Reiss

Addresses: SPRU Science and Technology Policy Research, The Freeman Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QE, UK. ' Innovation Policy Group, TNO Quality of Life, P.O. Box 6030, 2600 JA Delft, The Netherlands. ' Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Breslauer Strasse 48, 76139 Karlsruhe, Germany

Abstract: This paper assesses how far ten Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have |caught up| in biotechnology on the basis of information about the policies and funding for biotechnology research and commercialisation from 2002–2005 and on the research and commercialisation performance of these countries. The countries that are covered are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. The countries are grouped into three clusters, with similar performances in biotechnology as the basis for distinguishing the shared characteristics which could explain performance. Government science and technology policy is found to be a significant factor in explaining biotechnology performance.

Keywords: biotechnology policies; central and eastern Europe; CEE; research performance; commercialisation performance; Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Estonia; Hungary; Latvia; Lithuania; Poland; Romania; Slovak Republic; Slovenia; government policy; science and technology policy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBT.2008.019558

International Journal of Biotechnology, 2008 Vol.10 No.4, pp.341 - 362

Published online: 16 Jul 2008 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article