Biotechnology policies and performance in central and eastern Europe

This paper assesses how far ten Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have 'caught up ' in biotechnology on the basis of information about the policies and funding for biotechnology research and commercialisation from 2002-2005 and on the research and commercialisation performance of these countries. The countries that are covered are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. The countries are grouped into three clusters, with similar performances in biotechnology as the basis for distinguishing the shared characteristics which could explain performance. Government science and technology policy is found to be a significant factor in explaining biotechnology performance.