next article | contents

SPRU WINS SHARE OF $1.2 MILLION INDONESIAN CONTRACT

---

As a partner in a global consortium, SPRU is undertaking a consultancy project for the Indonesian government's Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT). This World Bank-funded project aims to strengthen BPPTs capabilities for industry-oriented policy analysis and technology management. The SPRU team, led by Martin Bell, is responsible for research on the development of innovation capabilities in the heavy process industries (mainly steel and petrochemicals) and in light engineering (mainly electronics and textile machinery).

Execution of the project rests heavily on an Indonesian team for which SPRU and other consortium participants provide advice and training. However, the project also provides SPRU with the basis for participating in significant research in one of its key areas of specialisation: technology policy in industrialising economies and technology management in latecomer firms.

The consortium is a joint venture between two groups of partners. The SPRU-led group is an embodiment of 'glocalisation' - one leg is in the local Sussex community, through the involvement of the Brighton consultancy firm Technopolis; the other is in East Asia, through the involvement of the Fujitsu Research Institute, Japan. The other half of the joint venture consists of a consortium of Australian academic institutions led by the Centre for Research Policy (CRP) at the University of Wollongong, the lead contractor for the consortium.

next article | contents

Friday November 7th 1997