2025

Brusila-Meltovaara, Kristiina; Bogdanova, Olga

Even though international network building is increasingly recognized to be important for research, the use of seed funding as a means of building researchers’ collaboration networks prior to actual grand writing network building and knowledge sharing has not been addressed. Research is a knowledge creation and knowledge sharing activity. Networking can increase social capital and thus enhance research productivity of HEI’s. International research collaboration networks are important for knowledge production, research productivity, and enhancing innovation capabilities. The enhancement of innovation capabilities is also linked to the mission HEI’s have of collaborating and enhancing the local business community in Finland. Innovation capabilities can be seen as innovation drivers, which improve the competitive advantages of a company or specific region. A number of instruments are in place for pure academic networking; however, these differ from seed funding as seed funding in most cases also includes networking outside of academia, e.g., local SME’s. This research depicts different seed funding sources used to construct international funding application research networks and also highlights the challenges, which should be addressed when considering this approach. The research question the paper addresses is, how do we best utilize seed funding to enhance knowledge sharing. The paper uses a case study approach presenting a number of successful seed funding research collaboration cases led by LAB University of Applied Science, which have also led to successful research funding applications with international partners. The study highlights possible pitfalls and also challenges encountered during the seed funding research collaboration period. Conclusions as to best practices with regards to utilization of seed funding to enhance knowledge sharing and creation are also presented. The findings emphasize the importance of strategic planning and proactive engagement in building effective research networks.