From sector to networks: the Venezuelan CONICIT research agendas

Abstract Venezuela has a 40 year history of science and technology policy development. This history demonstrates that science policy in all its aspects has traditionally been an issue for scientists. In the 1990s, however, new approaches to science and technology policy formation attempted to involve other social actors. This paper describes and places in context the “Research Agendas” methodology created by the Venezuelan Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnologicas (CONICIT) (the Venezuelan National Council for Scientific and Technological Research), an agency which in 2001 was renamed the Fondo Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnologia e Innovacion (FONACIT). Opposing a heritage of extreme sectorization, the Agendas process was inspired to work for network democratization in both the creation and use of scientific and technological knowledge.