This project investigated the role of technology platforms from science in the generation of variety and the mechanisms and processes by which it can be effectively exploited, that is, to generate new market opportunities and lead to economic growth. The aim was to address a crucial problem of intermediate development economies, where the weak capacity to realize the effective exploitation of new technological opportunities, translating them into a variety of innovative activity, is an obstacle to the development of science-based industries. It is also proposed that technology platforms emerging from science can play an important role in creating interdependencies, since they are spaces that foster the generation of variety and at the same time provide a focussing device to exploit this variety. This latter aspect is particularly critical in intermediate economies and therefore the project places special emphasis on the way in which the exploitation of variety can be achieved and on the role of different mechanisms of interdependence creation, ie the development of upstream links ) and downstream (market). The development process of the biomedical industry in Portugal was chosen as the empirical context. The analysis focused on how the processes of developing interdependencies lead to variety, producing technological and market outcomes and on the role of new models of value creation and appropriation in these processes. This exploratory research will also allow us to test, validate and improve our approach, providing a robust theoretical and methodological tool that can later be applied to the analysis of the industry as a whole.

Our goal was to understand the role of social networks of scientific entrepreneurs in the creation and diffusion of knowledge in biotechnology, with a view of contributing to the design of S&T policies regarding the interface between science and industry appropriate to intermediate development economies. There were five different stages: literature revision, two empirical research stages, a computerized simulation tryouts stage and, finally, conclusions and consequences for the implementation of public policies.