Page 27 - A Handbook for Academia, Industry and Policymakers: Reinforcing the Innovation-Employability Nexus in the Mediterranean

26 REINFORCING THE INNOVATION-EMPLOYABILITY NEXUS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REINFORCING THE INNOVATION-EMPLOYABILITY NEXUS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 27

The Triple Helix of academia-industry-government relations
Triple Helix Model of Innovation Figure 3
Building Academia-Industry-
Government Networks for Innovation
Environment

his Handbook uses the Triple Helix Model of Innovation

as a guiding framework. The Triple Helix has attracted ACADEMIA
T considerable attention as an integral policy-making tool to Universities & Research Centres
enhance innovation and promote economic development in both
advanced and developing economies. It advocates strengthening

collaborative relationships between academia, industry, and Civil society
government to enhance innovation. This recognises that only
Technology Transfer
if these three spheres work together and share overlapping
innovation and consensus spaces that allow for bilateral and Legal Framework Graduate Employability
Funding
trilateral relationships, can there be sustainable economic and Socio- Innovation
social development on a systemic scale. economic
Growth

This handbook draws on the Triple Helix Model The interactions between the three spheres
of Innovation 19-21 which represents a solid provide an innovative environment where GOVERNMENT BUSINESS/INDUSTRY
methodological tool and guiding framework that knowledge flows dynamically in all directions. Policy Enabling Environments
is helpful in making sense of data and structuring And each sphere, while retaining its primary role
ideas and thoughts into a coherent and clear and identity, ‘takes the role of the other’ – for
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narrative. The further development of the model example, universities support start-up creation in
with the integration of civil society (quadruple incubator and accelerator projects, thus entering
helix ) and the effects of investment in education into the industrial sphere.
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on sustainable development (quintuple helix )
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have also been taken into consideration. Academia has traditionally been viewed as
a support structure for innovation, providing
Choice of methods trained persons, research results and knowledge
to industry. One of the main differences with the
The Triple Helix Model theorises that in a traditional perspective is that the Triple Helix
knowledge-based society, boundaries between Model sees academia at an equivalent status.
different spheres are increasingly fading, giving Thus, unlike previous institutional configurations
rise to a system of overlapping actions: (a) in which universities had a secondary status Source: Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff (1998 and 2000) 19
universities and research centres are the source or were subordinate to either industry or
of new knowledge and technology; (b) industry government, in the Triple Helix Model the
operates as the centre of production; and (c) university emerges as an influential actor and
government provides an enabling environment equal partner, as shown in Figure 3 .
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(e.g. providing incentives, autonomy and stability).