The Triple Helix Research Group (THRG) joined Stanford's H-STAR Institute in July 2010. THRG was established at the Newcastle University Business School, UK in 2006 as an international centre of excellence in the analysis of University-Industry-Government interactions. It is at the heart of a global Triple Helix network of university managers, researchers, students, technology transfer managers, business firms, national and regional policy-makers, innovation and higher education consultants, entrepreneurs, venture capital and angel investors. THRG members, Prof. Henry Etzkowitz and Dr. Marina Ranga, have close connections with the Triple Helix Association, which has Henry serving as President, and Marina as Chair of the Membership and Strategy Committee and member of several other committees.
The THRG’s main research interests include:
- Theoretical and empirical aspects of the dynamics and management of relationships among university-industry-government (Triple Helix) actors;
- Regional and national innovation policies and strategies;
- Organization and management of support structures for commercialization of academic research at the universty-industry interface (technology transfer offices, science parks, business incubators, angel networks, venture capital firms, etc.)
- The gender dimension in science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.
THRG is involved in multiple research, consultancy and policy advice activities at national and regional level, especially in Europe, Latin America and Asia countries, as well as at the level of the European Commission, the UN and other international organizations.
Professor Henry Etzkowitz
Senior Researcher, H-STAR Institute, Stanford University
Visiting Professor at School of Management, Birkbeck College, London University and Edinburgh University Business School, UK.
Professor Etzkowitz is a scholar of international reputation in innovation studies as the originator of the 'Entrepreneurial University' and 'Triple Helix' concepts that link university with industry and government at national and regional levels. As President of the Triple Helix Association, he is at the centre of a unique international network of several hundred scholars and practitioners of university-industry-government relations. Henry is also the co-founder of the Triple Helix International Conference Series, which started in Amsterdam, 1996 and continues to present with annual meetings held in various locations around the world. The 9th Triple Helix Conference was organized by the THRG at Stanford University in July 2011 (see http://www.triplehelixconference.org). The Triple Helix conferences have produced an impressive series of books, special journal issues, research articles and policy analyses since inception.
Prior to coming to Stanford, Henry held the Chair in Management of Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise at Newcastle University Business School, UK and served as Visiting Professor in the Department of Technology and Society, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Stony Brook University, US. He has developed several innovative concepts for university-industry-government linkages together with colleagues in the Triple Helix Research Group at Newcastle University Business School, including: (i) the 'Professors of Practice' (half-time dual positions in high-tech firm and academia held by high-tech entrepreneurs with academic backgrounds and research interests), implemented with the support of the Regional Development Agency One Northeast as a signature feature of Newcastle Science City; and (ii) the 'Novum Trivium', a undergraduate degree program proposed as a contribution to the Bologna process, which combines a specialized academic field (e.g. science, arts, engineering, etc.), with training in entrepreneurship and innovation and a foreign language and culture.
Henry is the author of Triple Helix: University, Industry Government Innovation in Action (Routledge, 2008), MIT and the Rise of Entrepreneurial Science (Routledge, 2002) and co-author of Athena Unbound: The Advancement of Women in Science and Technology (Cambridge University Press, 2000), Public Venture Capital (Harcourt, 2000), and Universities and the Commercialization of Knowledge: New Dimensions for the 21st Century (Cambridge University Press, In Press). Recently he co-edited The Capitalization of Knowledge: A Triple Helix of University-Industry-Government (Edward Elgar, 2010) (with Riccardo Viale). He publishes regularly in Research Policy, Science and Public Policy, R&D Management, European Planning Studies and Minerva.
Dr. Marina Ranga
Senior Researcher, H-STAR Institute, Stanford University
Marina Ranga holds a PhD and MSc in Science and Technology Policy studies from SPRU, Sussex University, UK, and an MSc in Chemical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest. She joined the Triple Helix Research Group in 2006, as Assistant Professor in Innovation Management at Newcastle University Business School, UK, after a similar position at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. She came to Stanford as 2009-2010 Faculty Research Fellow of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research, and subsequently became a Senior Researcher at the H-STAR Institute. She also held Visiting Professor positions at Stony Brook University New York, Department of Technology and Society, and Sussex University, School of Business, Management and Economics (UK).
Marina's research interests include Triple Helix interactions and the evolution of the entrepreneurial university, national and regional innovation systems, construction of the European Research and Higher Education Areas and integration with national/regional research and education policies, as well as the gender dimension in innovation, technology transfer and entrepreneurship.
She is a member of the UN Economic Commission for Europe’s Expert Group on Innovation and Competitiveness Policies and of the Gender Advisory Board of the UN Commission for Science and Technology for Development. She is also an Associate Member of the ERAWATCH Network Brussels and a consultant for the European Commission (DG Research, DG Enterprise and Industry, DG Education, DG Regio) in several initiatives: PRO INNO TrendChart, ERAWATCH Research Inventory and Intelligence Services, METRIS - Analysis of Social Sciences and Humanities in EU27, European Observatory of Research Universities and Funding Agencies in EU27, evaluation of 2007-2013 Cohesion Policy of the European Union, State Aid for RDI, ERALAW, Regional Innovation Monitor. She led or contributed to various research projects for the European Commission, the OECD (implementation of Triple Helix partnerships in Bosnia and Herzegovina within the Regional Competitiveness Initiative of the Investment Compact for South East Europe), national and regional governments (e.g. Lithuania, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Republic of Moldova, Northeast and Southeast England, Northern Netherlands, Flanders, etc.) and government agencies, such as the German Research Foundation (DFG).
In the Triple Helix academic research area, she is the originator of the 'Triple Helix Systems’ concept that organizes the key features of university-industry-government interactions into a 'innovation system' format of components, relationships and functions that offers a broad perspective for understanding the sources and development paths of innovation. She also contributed together with Henry Etzkowitz to the development of concepts like 'Professors of Practice' (half-time dual positions in high-tech firm and academia held by high-tech entrepreneurs with academic backgrounds and research interests), implemented with the support of the Regional Development Agency One Northeast as a signature feature of Newcastle Science City, and the 'Novum Trivium', an undergraduate degree program proposed as a contribution to the Bologna process, which combines a specialized academic field (e.g. science, arts, engineering, etc.), with training in entrepreneurship and innovation and a foreign language and culture. Marina is the Chair of the Membership & Strategy Committee of the Triple Helix Association (THA) and serves in several other THA committees and Editorial Board of the THA Newsletter. She co-organized the Triple Helix 9 Conference held in July 2011 at Stanford University (http://www.triplehelixconference.org), and chaired the conference Scientific Committee. She was also a member of the Scientific Committees of Triple Helix 6, 7, 8 and 10 International Conferences, (Singapore, May 2007; Glasgow, June 2009; Madrid, Oct. 2010; Bandung, Aug. 2012) and other Triple Helix conferences, like ‘Innovation Systems and the New role of Universities’ (COSINUS), Bristol (Sept. 2011) and ‘Triple Helix Paradigm for Development: Strategies for Cooperation and Exchange of Good Practice’, Bristol (Sept 2006).
She authored several book chapters, research reports and articles in Research Policy, Scientometrics, Science and Public Policy, Technology Analysis and Strategic Management, Journal of Technology Management and Innovation, International Journal of Transition and Innovation Systems, European Planning Studies, etc. She is co-author (with Henry Etzkowitz) of the forthcoming book Gender Dynamics in Science and Technology: The “Vanish Box” Phenomenon (Cambridge University Press) and guest-editor of several Special Issues for the Journal of Technology Management (June 2010), European Planning Studies (September 2012), and International Journal of Transition and Innovation Systems (spring 2013).
