An Empirical Analysis of Institutional Barriers to European Hydrogen RD&D Cooperation

Abstract

The paper applies and elaborates environmental and evolutionary theorizing in the context of international research, development and demonstration (RD&D) cooperation. The theoretical framework of analysis lays particular emphasis on identifying and overcoming institutional barriers to international cooperation for the RD&D that contributes to radical and environmentally friendly systemic changes. The paper can be characterized as empirically based theory-building as it elaborates the conceptual framework and attests its validity with the interview findings and empirically based literature reviews. The empirical analysis is based on the HY-CO Era-Net interview results of government officers of national funding agencies responsible of the coordination of ERA-Net programmes.

Keywords: Evolutionary economics, hydrogen, innovation policy, institutions, path dependence, technology lock-in