Towards a systemic framework for capturing and explaining the effects of academic R&D

In the EU, it is believed that the potential benefits of academic R&D are not fully reaped. Much attention is, therefore, given to enhancing commercialisation in the form of academic spin-offs, patents and licences. There are, however, a number of problems with this way of analysing the effects of academic R&D. Its contribution must instead be captured by a systems approach and we go some way towards developing such an analytical framework. This enables us to capture, explain and assess the effects of academic R&D on the dynamics of an innovation system. We apply this framework to the received literature which informs us of a great variety of impacts on such systems. Conventional indicators cover, therefore, just a small part of the full impact of academic R&D.