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Is There Knowledge Convergence Among European Regions? Evidence from the European Union Framework Programmes

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Abstract

Hinging on the collaboration-induced knowledge diffusion literature, this paper aims at investigating how the landscape of knowledge production and diffusion has changed over the years and whether there is evidence of knowledge convergence among European regions. Using the European Union Framework Programme data from 1984 to 2016 and network analysis and regressions, we show that there are signs of knowledge convergence within the NUTS2 regions of Europe. Even though the top performers persist over the years, convergence is much stronger among the less developed regions even after controlling for R&D expenditures, patent applications, and human resources in science and technology. Our results have implications for knowledge generation, diffusion, and the design of cohesion policy in Europe.

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Notes

  1. A similar analysis can also be conducted using scientific publication data. However, even a much shorter period from 1996 to 2016 requires analysis of 15.6 million papers (according to Scimago) and associated co-authorship network which is out of the scope of this research. Besides, there are various issues of quality, missing information, and scientific field–specific issues that may cause problems in interpretation.

  2. https://data.europa.eu/euodp/en/data/dataset?q=cordis.

  3. For instance, in the downloaded raw data, there are 5527 project records for FP3. However, the average duration (931.29 days) is calculated over 5236 projects because the start and end dates of the remaining projects are not provided in the raw data.

  4. We do not include H2020 in such interpretations as the programme has not been completed yet.

  5. Graphs are drawn by using Gephi, an open-source network analysis and visualization software package.

  6. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/nuts/local-administrative-units

  7. The analysis at the NUTS 1 level is not presented due to space limitations but are available on request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank seminar and workshop participants of the H2020 project, The Future of EU-Turkey Relations: Mapping Dynamics and Testing Scenarios (FEUTURE), and the participants at the 4th Geography of Innovation Conference in Barcelona, 30th Annual Conference of European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE) for comments, questions and suggestions.

Funding

This work was supported by the European Commission, H2020 grant no. 692976.

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  1. Department of Economics and Science and Technology Policy Studies (TEKPOL), Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

    Erkan Erdil

  2. Science and Technology Policy Studies (TEKPOL), Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

    İbrahim Semih Akçomak & Umut Yılmaz Çetinkaya

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Erdil, E., Akçomak, İ.S. & Çetinkaya, U.Y. Is There Knowledge Convergence Among European Regions? Evidence from the European Union Framework Programmes. J Knowl Econ 13, 1243–1267 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-021-00754-5

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