Project description
The AEGIS project aims to study the interactions between knowledge, innovation, economic growth and social well-being in Europe. It focuses on knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship as a necessary mechanism and an agent of change mediating between the creation of knowledge and its transformation into economic activity. Knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship is perceived herein as a core interface between two interdependent systems: the knowledge generation and diffusion system, on the one hand, and the productive system, on the other. Both systems shape and are shaped by the broader social context - including customs, culture and institutions - thus also pointing at the linkage of entrepreneurship to that context.
General Objectives of the Project
The project has three main objectives (research thrusts). At the micro level, it purports to study in depth the very act of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship, its defining characteristics, boundaries, scope and incentives. At the macro level, it will study the link between knowledge entrepreneurship, economic growth and social well-being, also extending to the socio-economic processes that help transform the "animal spirits" (John Maynard Keynes) into a self-reinforcing process for broader societal prosperity. The way the broader socio-economic environment stokes "animal spirits" and benefits from them will be studied within the contexts of various shades of capitalism in Europe and elsewhere, expanding beyond the growth accounting and endogenous growth approaches and issues to novel concepts of the link between knowledgeintensive entrepreneurship and growth and, further, into the underlying issues of social wellbeing such as inclusion, cohesion, equity, opportunities, and social care. Finally, at the policy level, the project will take a systemic approach aiming at linking and integrating diverse sets of policies that influence the creation and growth of innovative entrepreneurial ventures based on knowledge generation and diffusion.
For more information please the AEGIS website: [http://www.aegis-fp7.eu/]
Sponsor: DG Research and Development (7FP) - European Commission
Partners:
Planet SA Societe Anonyme for the Provision of Consultancy Services, Athens - Greece
Universita Commerciale 'Luigi Bocconi', Milano - Italia
National Technical Univeristy of Athens, Athens - Greece
Stiftelsen Imit, Gothenburg - Sweden
Max Planck Gesellschaft Zur Foerberung Der Wissenschaften E.V., Muenchen - Germany
Lunds Universitet, Lund - Sweden
Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht - Netherlands
Technische Universitaet Dortmund, Dortmund - Germany
Universite de Strasbourg, Strasbourg - France
University College London, London - United Kingdom
Unidade de Estudos Sobre Complexidade e Economia, Lisboa - Portugal
Aalborg Universitet, Alborg - Denmark
University of Sussex, Brighton - United Kingdom
Magyar Tudomanyos Akademia Kozgazdasagtudomanyi Intezet, Budapest - Hungary
Centrum Ekonomickych Studii, Praha - Czech Republic
FIinansovaya Akademiya Pri Pravitelstve Rossiyskoy Federacii, Moscow - Russian Federation
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou - China
Centre for Development Studies, Ullor - India
Universiteit Maastricht, Maastricht - Netherlands
Croatian Employers' Association, Zagreb - Croatia
All the deliverables can be downloaded from the AEGIS website.
