Spatial Interaction Modelling of Cross-Region R&D Collaborations: Empirical Evidence from the 5th EU Framework Programme

The last few years have witnessed an increasing interest in the geography of innovation. As noted by Autant-Bernard et al. (2007a), the geographical dimension of innovation deserves further attention by analysing such phenomena as R&D collaborations. In this study we focus on cross-region R&D collaborations in Europe. The European coverage is achieved by using data on collaborative R&D projects funded by the EU Framework Programmes (FPs) between organisation that are located in 255 NUTS-2 regions of the 25 pre-2007 EU member-states, as well as Norway and Switzerland. The objective is to identify separation effects - such as geographical or technological effects - on the constitution of cross-region collaborative R&D activities. We specify a Poisson spatial interaction model to analyse these questions. The dependent variable is the intensity of cross-region R&D collaborations, the independent variables include origin, destination and separation characteristics of interaction. The results provide striking evidence that geographical effects play an important role in determining R&D collaborations across Europe. Geographical proximity and co-localisation of organisations in neighbouring regions are important determinants of cross-region collaboration intensities. The effect of technological proximity is stronger than spatial effects. R&D collaborations occur most often between organisations that are located close to each other in technological space. R&D collaborations in Europe are also affected by language- and country border effects, but these are smaller than geographical and technological effects.