Call for papers for the DIME – RAL2 Conference
Maastricht April 28th-30th 2009
Paper submission: April 1st, 2009

Already for nearly twenty years now the “greening” of technology has been a topic of research interest amongst many innovation scholars. Whereas in the past, environmental authorities were interested in this topic, increasingly economic authorities especially at the national level are interested in it (for industrial development reasons). Today, with the economic crisis, eco-innovation is a key part of economic recovery plans. This renewed policy interest in “green” technologies and “eco-innovation” raises many questions, some of which were already raised a long time ago and others which are much more recent and more directly linked to the new challenges posed by globalization. The RAL2 Conference “Eco-innovations and global sustainable development” taking place in Maastricht on April 29th and 30th, 2009 will bring together researchers addressing those issues within the new context of the present global economic downturn.

At the Maastricht conference DIME researchers will examine to what extent and through what processes the greening of sectors leads to new patterns of global sustainable economic development. Special attention will be given to the policies behind this and the appropriate mix of STI, environment and industrial development policies. Topical questions are: does the global economic crisis of today offers a more appropriate “creative destruction” type of macro and sectoral economic environment for a sustainable transformation of production, trade and consumption, than the high growth environment of the last twenty years? How can sustainable structural transformations be enhanced in developing countries? Can they leapfrog to green system innovation? What role for national and international policies? How can schemes of emission trading and other types of environmental policies be linked with an effective transfer of technology?

Papers are sought on the following topics:

• Demand for eco-innovation, green technologies and the evolution of industries
• User-producers relationship, innovation, and sustainable development
• The emergence and diffusion of eco-innovations
• Sustainable development, entry, exit and the role of demand and users
• Global green technological transitions and leapfrogging
• Developing countries, eco-innovation and sustainable development

Date and location:

The conference will be held at UNU-MERIT in Maastricht, on Tuesday the 28th of April to Thursday the 30th of April 2009.

Timetable:

• 1st Conference announcement: March 1st, 2009
• Paper submission: April 1st, 2009
• Decision on paper submission: April 15th, 2009

Emails marked ‘DIME’ with two-page abstract & contact details should be sent in an attached file to Luc Soete soete@merit.unu.edu.

You may also apply for funding to cover travel and accommodation expenses, which will be available to DIME members with accepted papers. Please specify that you are DIME member, as well as the budget.

Local conference organisers:

• René Kemp, UNU-Merit, Maastricht
• Luc Soete, UNU-Merit, Maastricht
• Rainer Walz, ISI-Frauenhofer Gesellschaft, Karlsruhe