The German R and D system in transition. Empirical results and prospects of future development

This paper deals with the effects of German unity on the S&T system, the R&D "landscape" (i.e. the institutional and functional differentiation of R&D capacities) and on German research and technology policies. In particular, attention is paid to the following: The economic situation in eastern Germany and developments over the next few years, to the extent that these can be discerned: the R&D landscape in eastern and western Germany and the changes that it is undergoing; the importance of industrial research and development, and their major adjustment problems; and innovation dynamics and policy solutions. Usually innovation is an evolutionary process, the actual German case is a revolutionary one. Innovation research has shown that crises and external shocks stimulate not only innovation but also structural change. This is the main topic of the paper. Because of lack of an appropriate theory this paper mainly describes this process - against the background of an incomplete and qualit atively insatisfactory empirical basis as from the end of 1990 - and analyses some of its driving forces and restricting conditions.