national system of innovation in slovenia - Mednarodni odnosi

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1. INTRODUCTION
In economic theory as well as in policy the importance of innovation as one of the
key determinants of long-run economic growth is widely recognized. The concepts
like national innovation system (NIS) (Edquist 1997) and national innovative
capacity as the ability of a country to produce and commercialize a flow of
innovative technology over the long term (Furman et al. 2002) receive significant
attention. In its ambition to secure the country long-term sustainable economic
and social development, Slovenia is looking also at the national innovation system
in an attempt to develop R&D and innovation capacities as important sources and
determinants of economic growth.
Slovenian innovation system has over the years evolved through complex relationship
of relatively influential public R&D sector, increasing presence of business
as the key investor in R&D and innovation and a search for optimal governance
of innovation policy, also by looking at best practices in other countries. A
survey of the existing system, with particular attention to the policy options, is
especially useful and timely, since Slovenia needs to prepare some of its critical
policy documents in the area of NIS, like the National Programme for Research
and Development, National Programme for Higher Education as well as the corresponding
legislation (Law on R&D as well as Law on Higher Education).
The analysis looks at the NIS through the concept of national innovative capacity
(Furman et al. 2002) and tries to capture the current state of affairs in all main
areas, which build such capacity. First, national innovative capacity depends on the
presence of a strong common innovation infrastructure: country’s overall science
and technology capabilities and policy environment and the mechanisms in place
for supporting basic research and higher education. Thus, the analysis presents the
basic data on R&D and innovation and provides for the overview of the main actors
in Slovenian NIS: from business sector R&D and innovation activity to public
R&D at the higher education institutions (HEI) and public research institutes. Not
only is the capacity of each actor important, the linkages within NIS are seen more
and more as detrimental for the successful innovation policy. Since the closer cooperation
between public science and industry is seen as one of the important ways
to improve effectiveness of the NIS on one hand and since the insufficient linkages
between business sector and public R&D has often been singled out as one of the
main challenges for the Slovenian NIS (PRO INNO Trendchart Country report on
Slovenia 2008 and 2009), a special section of the analysis focuses on this issue.
The role of public policy in building the innovation capabilities of the main actors
is also very important. The structure of STI policy governance as well as policy