Social Network Analysis Applied to Knowledge Creation and Transfer in the Portuguese Agricultural R&D Field: an exploratory study*

There is growing interest in the nature and scale of scientific collaboration regarding the processes involved with knowledge creation and sharing. One of the possible approaches to developing metrics for this area of research is based on the idea that co-authorship creates a social network of researchers. We present an exploratory study using a social network approach to examine the structure and pattern of knowledge creation and sharing within a Portuguese research community, working in the agricultural field, over the last seven years. The members of this community are with the Instituto Nacional da Investigacao Agraria (INIA) which recently became part of a newly created RD crops protection; eco-physiology, genetic resources and breeding; production technology; post-harvest technology; and agricultural economics, sociology and development. The study seeks to understand the evolutionary process and to analyse the network structure, showing how knowledge creation and transfer takes place within this unit. The identification of such networked co-authorship relationships may suggest ways to more effectively utilize knowledge capital and other resources. It is also expected that this approach could be used to analyse the remaining six INIA units.