Knowledge transfer activities and conditions for impact in Bulgarian public research institutions: A survey-based diagnostic

This paper analyses the state of progress in knowledge and technology transfer activities in Bulgarian public research organisations. It explores the nature and development of research competences, engagement in research collaboration, and technology transfer activities at public research institutions and aims to identify the factors that enable or constrain these activities. The results are based on a survey of public researchers, public research organisations (PROs), and university technology transfer offices (TTOs) in Bulgaria. Our findings show important gaps in institutional governance (linking research with industry demand), misalignments in academic incentives, and constraints related to lack of funding and capacity. Our findings also highlight the vital importance of mobility of researchers as catalyser of collaborative research and technology transfer linkages in both types of institutions and provides proposals for action in terms of policy and institutional reform to improve the performance and impact of public research.

Keywords: knowledge transfer, technology transfer, industry-science linkages, public research organisations, Bulgaria

JEL Classification: O31, O33, O38, I23