Research

A list of recent publications can be found here

RPI is a research-intensive institute, currently employing 15 staff with PhD degrees, including three professors. The research turnover today (2010) is over 10 million SEK, of which 80 per cent comes from external sources.

The institute has a PhD programme in studies of science and technology in society. For more information, see the PhD Programme Page.

Current research activities can be grouped into three broad categories. Links to websites for specific projects at the institute are listed in the left menu bar.

This line of research includes studies of science policy making and research funding organisations, academic organisations, and the dynamics of research areas – including studies of areas such as astronomy, biomedicine, chemistry, genetics, and physics.

A key issue that is being addressed is how new policy ideals – such as Mode 2 and triple helix – are operationalised into policy steering, funding practices, and research conducted in laboratories. This entails studies of national research policy priority-setting, research and innovation policy and funding models in practice, the governance of large-scale research facilities, the dynamics of research fields in relation to policy-making, and the science-innovation nexus as it is played out in laboratory practice.

Active researchers: Mats Benner, Anders Granberg, Olof Hallonsten, Gustav Holmberg, Merle Jacob, Anna Tunlid

RPI has a long-standing tradition in the field of development studies. This research area focuses on analyses of issues relating to innovation processes and learning systems, and their applicability for economic development and growth. It also includes studies of development strategies, in particular the design and implementation of programs for technological development, technological dissemination; innovation and learning systems; and cluster policies in developing countries and emerging economies. Many of the projects in this area are carried out within the LEAP4D - Learning Economy Analysis and Policies for Development program at RPI.

Active researchers: Claes Brundenius, Bo Göransson, Emily Hansson, Mikael Klintman, Sylvia Schwaag-Serger, Jens Sörvik, Jan Ågren

The starting-point for this line of activities is research on vulnerability in the post-cold war period and the management of new types of risks, ranging from environmental change and risks associated with science and technology to vulnerability related to new security threats (terrorism). This includes research projects on risk communication in high technology fields, the emergence of “green” knowledge interests and green political consumerism (including eco-labeling), and the general interplay between policy-making, movement activities and knowledge production (Klintman, Jacob, PhD projects by B. Bengtsson, S. Sarasini, E. Stenborg). RPI staff are particularly active in studies of the interface between science and activism in environmental politics, thus combining its historical strength in research policy with a more recent engagement in environmental activism and policy-making.

Studies of security policy emphasise the political constitution and construction of security threats and the management of these threats, including novel ways of assessing and monitoring sources of insecurity (Agrell, Cronqvist, Edvinsson, PhD projects by T. Peterson and L. Silfwerbrand). RPI has been one of the key players in security studies in Sweden, through the work of Wilhelm Agrell, and has recently broadened this approach to cover the area of social intelligence in a wider sense. Wilhelm Agrell participates in an international project on the transformation of intelligence.

Active researchers: Wilhelm Agrell, Beatrice Bengtsson, Mikael Klintman, Steven Sarasini, Emelie Stenborg