Science and technology

In the US and Europe alike, science and technology policy initiatives in the early 1980s have focused much on improving the capacity to apply their good science base in practice, expecting aresulting increase in technological advancement and implicitly improved market presence and enhanced economic growth.

Some advanced industrial economies do not conform to the expected relationship between science and technology, whereby strong performance in science shall lead to strong technological performance.The relationship between science and technology is very much interdepent science-technology link in a country may depend on the over all scientific and technological level of development in that country. The strength and interdependent nature of this link has a historical evolution that varies across fields of science and technology. The strength of thelink between science and technology in a country is affected by scientific and technological specialization.The strength and primary direction of the relationship at a given moment in time varies largely by field of science or technological innovation, as well as across long periods oftime.

Different technological fields have different scientific intensities, or degrees of building upon the science base Specialization of countries across scientific and technological fields varies, making it natural for the strength of the science-technology link to differ from one country to another. The high technological specialization of a country may impact its technological performance more than its immediately current scientific performance does.

As there are plausible explanations for the puzzling behavior of the science-technology link in developed countries, into a few suggested policy recommendations, with applicability to developed countries and to developing countries alike.