Project Design

Project Design

The aim of the project is to analyze economic and social aspects of nanotechnological innovation processes.

Nanotechnologies can be seen as part of so-called converging technologies: key technologies that should be merged against the background of a superior aim. Involved are and were the establishment of institutions that have the task of accompanying or moderating the process. The effects of such institutions, especially concerning economic and social structures and networks, will be analyzed via the example of the metropolitan regions Hamburg (Germany) and Grenoble (France). Both regions have clusters in nanotechnology with different focuses as the result of existing industrial structures: whereas the region of Hamburg fosters the field of life sciences, the region of Grenoble prefers the development of new materials and microelectronics. The analysis takes place from an economic and social perspective and will connect these two. On the basis of empirical investigations of both regions „stylized facts“ will be identified. These facts serve to simulate a theoretical model. The international consideration permits a comparison of two regional innovation systems in the context of their different technological and institutional focal points.