Research and Innovation for Sustainable Development

Our understanding of the relationships between research and innovation has radically changed over the last 25 years. The implications for development are striking. They bring to the forefront the importance of endogenous innovation processes in both developed and developing country situations. In the old industrial Science and Technology (S&T) model, the focus in the context of development was on technology transfer and imitation—imitation to some extent as the opposite of innovation. In the new model, every innovation now appears unique with respect to its application. The re-use and re-combinations of sometimes routine, sometimes novel pieces of knowledge are important, but their successful application involve more engineering expertise and design capabilities. The feedback from users and design developers upstream towards more applied research assistance is an interesting example of reverse transfer of technology, from the South to the North, re-invigorating the research community in the developed world increasingly ‘in search of relevance’.