Triple Helix Futures

Abstract

Successful collaboration between government, industry and academia is an acknowledged source for innovation, for regional, national, and global economic growth as well as for social development (Miller et al., 2016; Perkmann & Walsh, 2007; Urbano & Guerrero, 2013). The Triple Helix Model introduced back in the 1990s (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 1995) provides a framework which not only visually grasps the phenomenon of University-Industry-Government relations but also opens avenues for further research on the phenomenon. Nowadays, celebrating nearly three decades of the Triple Helix model, this special issue looks at where we currently are in studying Triple Helix relations, where the research discourse is moving, and what are the futures for both the phenomenon and the concept. The Bayh-Dole Act introduced in the USA in 1980 allowed American universities to own and commercialise the results of federally funded research. The Act was followed by similar initiatives in Europe and globally, which further facilitated university-industry-government relations (Mowery & Sampat, 2004; Sampat, 2006). The decade of the 1980s, thus, being kicked-off with strong