A Dynamical Model of Innovation? the Case of the Cooperation Between a Laboratory of Mechanics and Aeronautic Industry

Innovation obsess both, science and industry in our case of study mechanics and aircraft manufacturers. According to the whispered idea among the industrials, the more a company is in a competitive sector, it must do more “Research and Development” (R&D) and the “Technological Research” (R&T). The article is based on the fieldwork for the thesis intituled Les rapports science-industrie au prisme des nouvelles dynamiques de l’innovation. This thesis is based on the case of the cooperation between the Laboratory of Mechanics and Technology at the ENS Cachan (LMT-Cachan) and aeronautic industry (notably the companies Airbus and Safran). One of the central questions emerged during the fieldwork is, considering both –science and industry- are (in ideal terms) motivated by different interests, are they thinking about the same subject when they say “innovation”? As they pursue different interests, they can’t have an identical concept of innovation. Innovation for scientists will mean to produce new concepts and tools to make easier the work of design engineers; innovation for industrial engineers means to develop new products in order to introduce such products into the market. Even when we had identified two different notions of innovation, we realize that in both cases the horizon of innovation is always the market. Science and industry cooperate to improve production processes, to build more efficient and secure devices. Our central thesis will be that the cooperation between science and industry in terms of innovation introduce the dynamic of a pre-innovation. This pre-innovation aims to prepare the conditions for innovation but it is included in the boarder dynamics of innovation. Our aim is to develop a dynamical model of innovation that take in account the interaction of both systems with their own notion (and interest in) innovation.