The role of knowledge disclosure in the Italian biotechnological system

Faced by scientific knowledge that is greater, more ample and rigorous with respect to the past, it becomes quite natural to ask what progress consists and how to evaluate the effects of sector university-industry collaboration, within a broad-based public-private partnership. Such a relationship is especially emblematic in biotechnology, a multidisciplinary environment where knowledge and expertise lead to developing and process implementation of innovative industrial services and production. Here, the intellectual property ownership of private sector is traditionally predominant in the patent distribution, and colours the ways in which the use in science and industry of living things, such as cells and bacteria, impacts society. Its features make impossible for a single economic operator to access all required knowledge for an innovative product. Nonetheless, biotech firms establish more and more cooperation and collaboration with other parties in order to carry out research activities, whose outcomes are often presented in scientific fora (journal articles, conferences, seminars, etc), indicators of innovative output, for a twofold reason: i) to disseminate knowledge ; ii) to give firm publicity. The present paper is aiming at identifying and presenting underlying causes and disadvantages of an open knowledge disclosure behaviour through innovative output within the biotechnological system. It endeavours to offer a helpful window into the approaches and perspectives of knowledge sharing between academic community and industrial environment towards the development of what has also become a field of greatest cultural significance for today´s public debate. The analysis makes use of an innovative Italian data set survey and a data base consistent with OECD statistical standards, developed by the author.