Triple helix clusters: boundary permeability at university-industry-government interfaces as a regional innovation strategy

With this paper I discuss the importance of permeability among university-industry-government boundaries based on the experience of MIT and Boston, Stanford and Silicon Valley, the Research Triangle and North Carolina, and Newcastle University and Northeast UK. Encouraging permeability in university boundaries is a first step to creating an entrepreneurial university, the driving force of the most successful innovation regions. Underlying drivers of innovation are transferable and may be instituted by specific policy initiatives addressing gaps in particular cases. These is no one-size-fits-all 'best-practice' mode but there are some common characteristics of innovation regimes such as 'boundary permeability' that can be positively influenced by explicit measures.