Bio Valley - Towards a Life Network Science of Complementarity - February 2006

The current study uses the concept of national innovation systems (NSI) to chart and compare the three national innovation systems within the Bio Valley. The main finding ist that the systems are highly complementary, where weahness in one country can effectively he compenanted by capacities in one of the partner countries. One of the most striking examples is the distribution of applied vs. basic research. While the German and French part of the Bio Valley boast a very strong public research base, Switzerlanbd - through its multinational companies (MNCs) - dominates in the applied research. Taken together the Bio Valley has a very complete portfolio, yet patent analysis shows that transhorder collahoration is still heayily underdeveloped. It follows that knowledge creation / knowledge networking (especially in basic research) is a prime area for future Bio Valley development. It is also clear that invelopment in such an area of activity (c. g. as funding agency for research) would require a significant increase in funding. Using the concept of organisational learning the study also identifies a two stage development of the Bio Valley initiative from "tri-national" and "centralised" to "regional" and "decentralised". It is argued that this evolutionary path is marked by commercial and political egoism. The report suggests that a third stage development must clarify the extent to which the three participating countries either favour national emphasis or international co- operation.