CHANGES ON THE BORDERLINES BETWEEN RESEARCH AND INDUSTRY FOLLOWING ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION IN THE CZECH-REPUBLIC

This paper presents the results of comparative empirical research on t he emergence of new institutional arrangements on what we might call t he 'borderlines between research and industry: in the context (especia lly) of radical economic liberalization in the Czech Republic. The res earch focused on creative links between academic and industrial resear ch, the exploitation of research by industry, and the growth of new in termediary institutions between these two spheres. The paper analyzes the potential for such developments by looking at the institutional sh aping of different sectors of the research system, in the environment of centralist regulatory practices before 1989, and their de-instituti onalization following radical economic reform in the early 1990s. The latter process has had a mobilizing effect, prompting (among other thi ngs) a number of local 'bottom-up' initiatives - which, in various way s, promise to enhance links between research and industry - in respons e to pressures on the research system. Three exemplary cases are descr ibed (from industrial, academy and university research respectively) i n order to illustrate both the opportunities and the limits to such de velopments. It is argued in conclusion that additional, 'top-down' eff orts are required if this potential is to be fully realized.