Abstract
International collaboration has become a strategic policy initiative for building scientific competency in different countries. This is driven by increasing realisation that no country possess all the wherewithal to address complexities of scientific research, dedicate huge funding, and confront global challenges. Varied institutional mechanisms have been created by different countries for strategising international collaboration such as signing bilateral agreements, initiating dedicated programs with partner countries in different S&T areas. Some countries have further deepened their relationship by creating bilateral S&T organisations/specialised centres. The role of bilateral organisation in strengthening inter-country research and innovation partnership is not explicitly underscored in collaboration studies. The present study addresses this issue by taking up the case study of a bilateral organisation IFCPAR/CEFIPRA (Indo-French Centre for Promotion of Advanced Research/Centre Franco-Indien pour la Promotion de la Recherche Avancée) which was established by India and France in 1987 to support their science and technology partnership. Through this case study the paper draws insight of inter-country collaboration in S&T and show how its dynamics and structural aspects are affected by a bilateral organisation.




Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Based on discussion with CEFIPRA.
Brainstorming meeting on “CEFIPRA—Beyond 25 years. Impact of CEFIPRA support to knowledge generation and Indo-French S&T collaboration”. 21st August 2013, India Habitat Center, New Delhi.
Press Release of the French Embassy in India dated 22 February, 2013.
Feedback given by the PI of the project (O. P. Sharma, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi).
India–France Technology Summit, 23rd–24th October, 2013, New Delhi, India.
Minutes of the first meeting of the scientific and governing council, CEFIPRA.
Ensemble: Vol. 1 (1). January 2013.
Published Annual reports and Ensemble newsletters (CEFIPRA).
The recent visit (14th to 15th February, 2013) of French President, Mr. Francois Hollande in India along with a large delegation led to signing of important agreements in many fields including STI. There was a strong thrust to deepen the relationship between the two countries in different fields. Subsequent to the visit, Indo-French technology partnership was held in Delhi on 23rd–24th October, 2013.
CEFIPRA’s Annual Report 2012–2013.
www.Francetoday.org. accessed on February 2014.
This is postulated as it is not possible to assign them as papers emerging from CEFIPRA funded projects. The assignment can only be done through acknowledgement or direct reference in the address to CEFIPRA.
The research team could meet some of the principal investigators (PI(s)/researchers of CEFIPRA funded projects through workshops organised by CEFIPRA. The research team also had access to feedback given by 160 PIs of CEFIPRA funded projects on their experiences while undertaking project funded by this organisation.
Content analysis of achievements from annual reports published by CEFIPRA.
The project outcomes from the study CEFIPRA 25: Strengthening bilateral collaboration and cooperation in science, technology and innovation between India and France (2013). Study commissioned by CEFIPRA to CSIR-NISTADS.
Ensemble: Vol. 1 (4). July, 2013.
Spearman rank correlation is not desirable due to unstructured response by PI’s.
References
Adams, J. (2013). Collaborations: The fourth age of research. Nature, 497(7451), 557–560.
Altenburg, T., Schmitz, H., & Stamm, A. (2008). Breakthrough? China’s and India’s transition from production to innovation. World Development, 36, 244–325.
Balaram, P. (2008). Scientometrics: A dismal science. Current Science, 95(4), 431–432.
Bhattacharya, S., Shilpa, & Bhati, M. (2012). China and India: The two new players in the nanotechnology race. Scientometrics, 93(1), 59–87.
Bhattacharya, S. (2013). Science, Technology and Innovation Policy: Some Critical Thoughts In India Science and Technology, CSIR-NISTADS. In S. Bhattacharya, K. C. Garg, N. Kumar, K. Mandal, K. Mehra, P. Nath, S. Pohit, R. Raina (Ed.).New Delhi: Cambridge University Press India Pvt. Ltd.
Bound, K. (2007). India: The uneven innovator. The atlas of ideas: Mapping the new geography of science (www.demos.co.uk). London: The Good News Press.
Bound, K. (2008). Brazil the natural knowledge economy. The atlas of ideas: Mapping the new geography of science (www.demos.co.uk). London: The Good News Press.
Braun, D. (1993). Who governs intermediary agencies? Principal-agent relations in research policy-making. Journal of Public Policy, 13(2), 135–162.
Caswell, C. (1998). Social science policy: Challenge, interactions, principals and agents. Science and Public Policy, 25, 286–296.
Crane, D. (1972). Invisible colleges: Diffusion of knowledge in scientific communities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
CSIR-NISTADS (2007). Evaluation and Assessment of Indo-US Science and Technology Forum Program Portfolio. Indo-US S&T Forum.
CSIR-NISTADS (2011). Analysis of India’s S&T Research Capabilities and International Collaboration Strength, 2004–2009. DFG India/German Research Foundation.
Curien, H., and Ramanna, R. (2000). Audit Report, Indo-French centre for the promotion of advanced research.
Diamond, A. M. (1985). The money value of citations to single authored and multiple-authored articles. Scientometrics, 8, 312–320.
Elsevier, B. V. (2012). Bibliometric study of India’s Scientific Publication outputs during 2001–2010. Study commissioned by Department of Science and Technology—NSTMIS, India.
Etzkowitz, H., & Leydesdorff, L. (2000). The dynamic of innovation: From national systems and ‘Mode 2’ to a triple helix of university–industry–government relations. Research Policy, 29, 109–123.
Evidence. (2011). A bibliometric study of India’s research output and collaboration. Study commissioned by Department of Science and Technology—NSTMIS, India.
Gibbons, M., Limoges, C., Nowotny, H., Schwartzman, S., Scott, P., & Trow, M. (1994). The new production of knowledge: The dynamics of science and research in contemporary societies. London: Sage.
Goffman, W., & Warren, K. S. (1980). Scientific information systems and the principle of selectivity. New York: Praeger.
Haustein, S., Tunger, D., Heinrichs, G., & Baelz, G. (2011). Reasons for and developments in international scientific collaboration: Does an Asia-Pacific research area exist from a bibliometric point of view? Scientometrics, 86, 727–746. doi:10.1007/s11192-010-0295-4.
Hayashi, T. (2003). Effect of R&D programmes on the formation of university–industry–government networks: comparative analysis of Japanese R&D programmes. Research Policy, 32, 1421–1442.
Huggins, R., & Izushi, H. (2007). Competing for knowledge: Creating, connecting, and growing. London: Routledge.
Kaplinsky, R., & Messner, D. (2008). The impact of Asian drivers on the developing world. World Development, 36(2), 197–209.
Katz, J., & Hicks, D. (1997). How much is a worth? A calibrated bibliometric model. Scientometrics, 40(3), 541–554.
Kostoff, R. N., Briggs, M. B., Rushenberg, R. L., Bowles, C. A., Pecht, M., Johnson, D., et al. (2007). Comparisons of the structure and infrastructure of Chinese and Indian Science and Technology. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 74(9), 1609–1630.
Leydesdorff, L., & Wagner, C. (2008). International collaboration in science and the formation of a core group. Journal of Informetrics, 2(4), 317–325.
Luukkonen, T., Tijssen, R. J. W., Persson, O., & Silvertsen, G. (1993). The measurement of international scientific collaboration. Scientometrics, 28, 15–36.
Merton, R. K. (1973). The sociology of science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Muller, E., Zenker. A., and Heraud, J. A. (2009). France: Innovation System and Innovation Policy. Fraunhofer ISI Discussion Papers Innovation Systems and Policy Analysis, No. 18. Fraunhofer, ISI.
Narin, F., Stevens, K., & Whitlow, E. S. (1991). Scientific co-operation in Europe and the citation of multinationally authored papers. Scientometrics, 21, 313–323.
Panat, R. (2014). On the data and analysis of research output of India and China: India has significantly fallen behind China. Scientometrics,. doi:10.1007/s11192-014-1236-4.
Price, D. J., & Beaver, D. B. (1966). Collaboration in an invisible college. American Psychologist, 21(1), 1011–1018.
Royal Society. (2010a). The Scientific Century: Securing our future prosperity. UK: Royal Society Publishing.
Royal Society. (2010b). New frontiers in science diplomacy. UK: Royal Society Publishing.
Royal Society. (2011). Knowledge, network and nations. UK: Royal Society Publishing.
Tripathi, S. M., & Padmavati, M. (2013). Legal basis of Innovation Systems in India. India Science and Technology, CSIR-NISTADS. In S. Bhattacharya, K. C. Garg, N. Kumar, K. Mandal, K. Mehra, P. Nath, S. Pohit, R. Raina (Ed.).(pp. 119-121)New Delhi: Cambridge University Press India Pvt. Ltd.
Wagner, C. (2008). The new invisible college: Science for development. Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Waldschmidt, M. (2010). Indo-French cooperation in mathematics. Special Issue on Mathematics Newsletter, 19(1), 1–12.
Webb, M. (2007). Korea: Mass Innovation Comes of Age. The atlas of ideas: Mapping the new geography of science (www.demos.co.uk). London: The Good News Press.
Wilsdon, J., & Keeley, J. (2007). China: The next science superpower? The atlas of ideas: Mapping the new geography of science (www.demos.co.uk). London: The Good News Press.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank IFCPAR/CEFIPRA for supporting the study “CEFIPRA 25: Strengthening bilateral collaboration and cooperation in science, technology and innovation between India and France”. The paper is derived from this study. We especially thank Director CEFIPRA Dr. Debapriya Dutta for providing us access to feedbacks of PIs, minutes of the meetings and other internal documents of CEFIPRA. Discussion with him enriched our understanding of this organisation. We thank Mr. V. V. Rao and Ms. Sathidevi of CEFIPRA for their support. We thank Mr. Varun Srivats, Ms. Noklenyangla and Mr. Fayaz Ahmad Sheikh for their helpful comments. We thank both the referees for critical reading of our manuscript and very useful comments.
An early draft of this work from which abstract was developed was accepted in the ‘9th International Conference on Webometrics, Informetrics and Scientometrics’ and published in the proceeding of the said conference (http://www.etag.ee/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/9th-International-Conference-on-Webometrics_conference-booklet.pdf). We thank COLLNET ‘9th International Conference on Webometrics, Informetrics and Scientometrics’ for publishing our work in the proceeding. The authors could not attend the conference and hence could not present their work in the said conference.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Disclaimer: The opinions, estimates and finding contained in the research paper are based on the information available at the date of publication. The views in this study are those of the authors, and do not represent those of the CEFIPRA. Inquiries may be addressed to the corresponding author.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bhattacharya, S., Kaul, A., Shilpa et al. Role of bilateral institution in influencing collaboration: case study of CEFIPRA—a bilateral S&T institution established by India and France. Scientometrics 102, 169–194 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-014-1454-9
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-014-1454-9