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Meeting Global Challenges through Better Governance

International Co-operation in Science, Technology and Innovation

In recent years, the need to address social and environmental challenges has grown in urgency.  Climate change, global health, food security and many other global challenges cross national borders and affect a wide range of actors.  Yet, in most cases, single governments cannot provide effective solutions.  Global challenges call for co-operation on a global scale to build capacity in science, technology and innovation (STI) at both national and international levels.  How can international co-operation in STI be scaled up and its scope broadened?  How do different modes of governance of international co-operation in STI function and which modes lead to effective and efficient collaboration? 

Based on case studies, this book presents lessons and good practices on a range of governance mechanisms used for international co-operation in STI to address global challenges.  The studies cover organisations that address global challenges including agriculture, food security, health, energy and climate change as well as organisations that bring together various types of actors.  It takes a first step towards understanding the complexity of governance of international STI collaboration and provides the basis for future research. 

This chapter reviews the literature on five dimensions of international science, technology and innovation (STI) governance: i) priority setting, ii) funding and spending arrangements, iii) intellectual property, iv) putting STI into practice and v) capacity building.  It is supported by the case studies presented in the preceding chapters.  Finally, it presents preliminary steps towards governance options and some paths for further research.