Open science ed economia della conoscenza: i paradossi della crescita come obiettivo della scienza

Research policies reflect to a great extent a view of the social utility of science as resting in its role as facilitator of economic growth. However, the associated measures – the re-orientation of universities and Public Research Organizations towards serving the training and research support needs of the economy and the pervasive recourse to patenting for public research results – lead, in a context characterized by increasing knowledge privatization, to paradoxical implications. The compression of the Open Science space that originates from them contributes to generating virtuous and vicious circles of accumulation of intellectual property and investment in human capital that have distortionary effects and reduce global investment opportunities, jeopardizing the very growth they mean to promote. A new science policy, global in nature to ensure the internalization of cross-border externalities, is needed to mitigate the increasing imbalances between public and private knowledge and turn economic growth into an attainable objective.