Knowledge transfer and innovation

David Moscoso

I graduated in Political Sciences and Sociology by the University of Granada in 2002 and obtained my PhD in Sociology at the UNED in 2007. My scientific research started in 2002 with a scholarship linked to research projects of Rural Sociology at the Institute for Advanced Social Studies (IESA-CSIC). During that time, I obtained my PhD thanks to a competitive PhD scholarship.

From 2008 I am currently a full professor in the Department of Sociology of the University Pablo de Olavide (Seville, Spain). An active component of my activities has been the research on the social aspects of the sport. I am the academic director of the MSc in Social Research Applied to the Sport and Recently, I head the Chair of Social Research Applied to Sports in Andalucia. In the area of the social aspects of sports, I have been the Secretary of the Spanish Association of Social Research applied to Sports and the President of the Committee for Research in Sport Sociology of the Spanish Federation of Sociology. During this time, I have been the scientific director of the International Sociological Sport Observatory (ISSO) in Barcelona.

Regarding academic and scientific management, I have had different management roles as Deputy Dean (Vicedecano de Prácticas y Empleabilidad) and academic director of the degrees of Sociology and Politics in the Faculty of Social Sciencies of the University Pablo Olavide in Seville, Spain.

During recent years, I have been elected member of the Parliament of Andalucia (X and XI terms), acting as spokesman of the Commission of Universities, Research, Tourism and Sport, apart from General Secretary of a Parliamentary Group.

At the moment I am a professor in the department of social sciences at the University of Córdoba.

José Antonio Pedraza Rodríguez

PhD in Economic Sciences by the University of Cordoba and Bachelor in in Business and Economic Sciences by the University of Cordoba. His research activity is related to the importance of the intangible goods in business environments, the customer satisfaction measurement and services quality. In addition, he studies the creation of values through the business quality and innovation. He was trained as researcher in the CSIC and since then he has been working in several research projects related to social problems and public policies, collaborating in assessments, prospective works and R&D management tasks about science policies, technology and innovation in Andalusia. Since 2010 is professor in the University of Cordoba.

José Luis Ortega

Bachelor in Information Science by the University of Granada (1999) and PhD in Information Science by the Charles III University of Madrid (2007). He is specialist in Bibliometrics and Web studies, studying issues related to new scholarly publishing and dissemination ways on the Web (Scholarly social networks, Academic search engines, Altmetrics, etc.). He was trained as researcher in the Cybermetrics Lab of the CSIC. In 2006, he was hired by the Virtual Knowledge Studio of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and Arts (KNAW) at Amsterdam. Since 2008, he was working for the Vice-presidency of Scientific and Technological Research (CSIC) developing research evaluation and advisory tasks. From July 2018, he is part of the Institute for Advanced Social Studies (IESA-CSIC).

Manuel Fernández Esquinas

I am a Research Scientist at the Institute for Advanced Social Studies (IESA), an official centre of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).  I have a PhD in Sociology and Political Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid.

My main research interest lies in the intersection of the sociology of innovation and innovation policies, focusing mainly on the social conditions that influence knowledge transfer in several disciplines, both STEMs and the social sciences.

I study innovation as a social process that is shaped by both culture and social structure at different level of analysis. At the societal level I have worked on values and behaviors related to innovation, mainly using survey methodology targeting the general population. At organizational level I have studied science and innovation policies, several forms of knowledge transfer between science and industry, research training and collaboration dynamics of universities and research centers with other domains. Currently I’m working on the ”institutional quality” of innovation systems by looking empirically at key social processes inside institutions and their socioeconomic effects on the innovation system.  I’m also working on knowledge transfer and knowledge utilization with a special focus on the social sciences.

For several years I worked as an applied researcher and consultant.  I have conducted numerous extensive projects on public opinion polls, public policy analysis, social problems and program evaluation. I have also worked as evaluator and consultant for the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation, several regional governments and international organizations such as OECD and the EU. I have been a visiting fellow at Southbank University (UK), the University of Wollongong, Western Sydney University (Australia), Indiana University and the University of New Mexico (USA), among others.

My main recent publications in English are in European Planning Studies, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Regional Studies, Industry and Innovation and Higher Education, among others, and several book chapters with Edward Elgar, Routledge and Springer. My latest edited book is titled “Innovation in SMEs and Micro Firms: Culture, Entrepreneurial Dynamics and Regional Development” (Routledge, 2018, with van Oostrom and Pinto).  In Spanish I have written many articles in social science journals and several books with some of the main academic publishers in Spanish language.

I have editorial experience as director of Revista Española de Sociología/Spanish Journal of Sociology, editor or the new book series “Southern European Societies” (Edward Elgar) and guest editor of several special issues and books. Currently I’m serving as President of the Spanish Sociological Federation (FES) and Coordinator of the Research Network “Southern European Societies” of the European Sociological Association.

María Isabel Sánchez Rodríguez

Bachelor in Statistical Sciences by the University of Granada (Awarded by the Institute of Statistics and Cartography of Andalusia and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport) and PhD in Statistics in the University of Granada. She has been researcher in formation granted by the Training University Professor (FPU) program from the Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation in the University of Granada. Since 2004, she is professor of the Statistics and Operative Research Department of the University of Cordoba. She has taken part in different projects about signals estimation and the spectral data analysis of the olive oil. In applied statistics to social sciences, he was working in research projects on organized crime, gender studies and minorities rights. In addition, she has been working about knowledge transfer and university-industry relationships.

Paula Espinosa Soriano

Pre-doctoral researcher in the Institute for Advanced Social Studies (IESA-CSIC), she is granted with a contract of the Training University Professor (FPU) program from the Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation. She is writing her doctoral dissertation along with the University of Cordoba (UCO).

She studied Sociology in the Pablo de Olavide University and the Master of Labour Sciences in the University of Seville. She has collaborated as Honorific Assistant of the Department of Sociology of the University of Seville and Inner Student of the Department of Sociology of the Pablo de Olavide University.

She works about innovation sociology from the institutional quality, the governance analysis and the sociology of organization point of view.

Rocío Muñoz Benito

Cum laude PhD in Social and Law Sciences by the University of Cordoba, Bachelor in Business and Economic Sciences by the University of Cordoba and Master in Market Research and Marketing for responsible of Social Economy by the Loyola University of Andalusia.

The most outstanding of her professional career is her activity as trainer and adviser about Information Technology for companies, universities and other organizations such the Comillas Pontifical University, Vértice Group, Provincial Consortium of Economic Development of Córdoba, Loyola University of Andalusia, European Information Centre of Córdoba and Jean Monnet Chair of Economics of the University of Córdoba.

Regarding to the knowledge transfer, she was Project Head of the Scientific and Technologic Park of Cordoba, Rabanales 21. Currently, she collaborates with the Advising Commission about Research Transfer of the University of Cordoba (2006-2012) in projects evaluation.