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"In the Shadow of the Wall" - Study examines the development of knowledge networks after German reunification

29 July 2020

Three decades after reunification in Germany, it seems collaborative ties are still created in the ‘shadow of the wall’. In the article ‘Still in the shadow of the wall? The case of the Berlin biotechnology cluster’, IAMO researcher Milad Abbasiharofteh (project TRAFOBIT) and Tom Broekel have investigated the driving forces of collaborative tie formation in R&D projects, patents, and scientific publications in the case of the Berlin biotech cluster.

The results suggest that the different social contexts in the different parts of the city still hamper the establishment of collaborative ties between the former East and the former West Berlin. While partly subsidized collaborations managed to connect East and West Berlin in the 1990s, after the effects of such policies faded out (in the 2000s), the initial East–West division of the knowledge network seems to have re-emerged. This raises the question what innovation policy design is required to assure the effect of policies in the long run? Given even the larger differences across European regions, what measures European Cohesion policy should take to integrate European regions more effectively?

Read the whole article here:

Abbasiharofteh, M., Broekel, T., 2020. Still in the shadow of the wall? The case of the Berlin biotechnology cluster. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 46 (3). doi:10.1177/0308518X20933904