Territorial Review Copenhagen - Region Hovedstaden

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a number of industrial research networks, their effect on the regional
innovation system of the region was found to be very limited, partly because
their design was complicated and not well adapted to regional circumstances
(Faugert et al., 2004). Possible avenues to explore might be collaboration
between the Øresund University and Øresund Region on a common strategy
for university-industry co-operation, for example by streamlining the
activities of the different science parks. Better clustering of similar start-ups
could arguably stimulate further integration of research activities and
rationalise duplications.
Research funding
Innovation in metropolitan areas is influenced by the quality of research,
and research funding is of critical importance. Denmark has a two-tier
system for resource allocation for research. The first tier is the basic grant,
allocated by the different ministries directly to the institutions. The second
tier includes resource allocation from the National Research Councils,
strategic research programmes, R&D funds from the different ministries,
private funds and firms. The basic research grant is allocated as a lump sum
to the institutions and to a large extent calculated on an incremental basis.
Basic grants are not dedicated to specific activities; distribution of the grants
is relatively permanent and based on precedent. New research grants to
universities are increasingly distributed according to models relying on
activity parameters. An essential part of the second tier is the research
council system, in which several research councils subsidise research: more
―bottom up‖ research is being subsidised by the Danish Research Council
for Independent Research, governed by researchers, and the independent
Danish National Research Foundation. Top-down, politically prioritised
funding is implemented by the Danish Council for Strategic Research,
governed mainly by private sector members. In addition to the universities‘
research activities, 11 applied research institutes in Denmark (GTS
institutes) play an important role in research, employing a total of 3 000
people and with a turnover of around DKK 2.4 billion. About 11% of their
income comes from performance contracts with the Board for Technological
Service. The other 89% of income comes primarily from industry.
The first tier funding of research lacks incentives for efficiency and the
second tier is not transparent. Although the basic research grants can secure
long-term planning of universities, they appear to lack incentives for
efficiency, relevance and societal impact. As they are mostly based on
historical allocations, no mechanisms are in place to ensure that the
institutions producing the highest quality of research are rewarded. Although
the second tier provides a multi-faceted perspective on research priorities, it
represents complicated arrangements that can easily become opaque and