Public R&D and Regional Development: Spillovers from University and Company-based Research Centres

Public funding of university and company-based R&D centres of excellence is widespread both in core and more peripheral regions in the hope of generating local knowledge spillovers. In this paper we examine one such initiative involving the establishment of 18 publicly funded R&D centres. Based on data from a real-time monitoring study, we explore the development of the centres‘ external connections. University-based centres are found to develop more extensive local and extra-regional connections than company-based centres, with company-based centres most willing to form new local connections where their partner is either a customer or supplier. Our results suggest a generally positive message, emphasising the potential for public R&D investments to generate increased local and extra-regional connectivity. They also suggest a prioritisation among such investments, however, in order to derive the maximum benefit for regional economic development. Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Invest Northern Ireland for funding the research on which this paper is based. We also wish to express our thanks to Beth Young for providing excellent research assistance and to the staff in the Centres of Excellence for providing time and assistance in undertaking this study. Valuable comments were received from James Love (Aston Business School). Interpretations and mistakes in the paper are those of the authors alone.