The four papers in this ICC Special Section were selected from those presented at two workshops on 'The Organization, Economics and Policy of Scientific Research' held at Collegio Carlo Alberto, in Moncalieri (Torino), in spring–summer 2008 and 2009. We thank all participants for useful comments and suggestions and Paula Stephan and Franco Malerba for their feedback. Financial support is acknowledged from BRICK (Collegio Carlo Alberto), DIME, COMMUNIA and CODATA.