Introduction

Issues related to science, technology and innovations have become central due to information society development and economic globalisation. The central questions are: How does societal change affect the functioning of science and technology systems? How has science, technology and innovation policy changed and influenced the development of different areas of society? How do research and innovation systems themselves change? The research unit conducts empirical and theoretical research on these questions. The research benefits both academic and non-academic audiences, home and abroad.

The research interests of the unit cover the following areas:
- science, technology and innovation systems and policy;
- activity and development of universities and other research communities;
- firms' innovation activity and innovation environments

These themes are studied on the basis of functional, organisation theoretical, institutional and system level perspectives. At the same time, the unit strives at the complementarity of approaches and methods. The research unit provides post-graduate training in the area and develops teaching for undergraduate students.
Unit for Science, Technology and Innovation Studies comprises of two previously separate research groups: Science Studies Unit (est. 1990) at the Research Institute for Social Sciences and the Research Group for Innovation Systems and Organisational Learning (est. 1996) at the Work Research Centre. The integration of the two groups in 2002 was based on long co-operation and rapprochement of research themes.