The Globelics Academy originates from and is connected to the world-wide research network Globelics (www.globelics.org), initiated by professor Bengt-Åke Lundvall (IKE-group, Aalborg University and professor Luc Soete, UNU-MERIT).
Globelics is a global network of scholars working on innovation system-research. One major academic aim of the Globelics network is to enrich and enhance the quality of innovation research by applying some of its fundamental concepts such as ‘innovation systems’, ‘competence building’ and ‘interactive learning’ to issues at the core of economic development. It is well known that applying a theoretical framework outside the arena where it was first developed may bring fundamental new theoretical insights. The first Globelics Conference was held in Rio de Janeiro, November 2003. After which the first Globelics Academy took place in Lisbon, Portugal a year later in 2004.
The aim of the Globelics Academy is to bring together leading scholars in the Globelics network with the major aim of training Ph.D. students from less developed countries. One result will be to get them better connected to high quality research centres in different parts of the world.
A second academic aim is to stimulate interactive learning between European scholars and scholars from the South and the East (including Eastern Europe). There are already quite a number of individual scholars as well as research groups active in the field of innovation research in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe.
The Globelics Academy, as well as the formation of the GLOBELICS network, gives Ph.D. students in the less developed countries, more direct access to the most recent research in the field of innovation.