Transnational cooperation and policy networks in European science policy-making

In the last decades, a host of transnational organizations representing nat ional universities, research organizations and industrial research have bee n established in Europe. This article gives an empirical account of the rol e of transnational organizations in European science and technology policy and of the policy networks established between these organizations and supr anational institutions. The analysis shows that because of the strong horiz ontal and vertical segmentation of transnational cooperation and interest i ntermediation, science, industry and politics are only weakly linked in Eur opean S&T policy. If institutionalized links between the major actors and i nstitutions from different social sub-systems are an indispensable property of an efficient system of innovation, these missing links must be consider ed a major obstacle for European S&T policy to be successful. (C) 1999 Else vier Science B.V. All rights reserved.