Brussels in the European Research Geography: A Competitive System for the EU Research Capital

What is the role of Brussels in the European research geography? Brussels is largely recognised as the EU capital, but mainly for political and administrative functions; whereas, also research plays a relevant role. While research is fundamental in a ‘knowledge-based economy’, this paper shows the performance of Brussels in terms of participation in EU R&D projects (Framework Programme) during last decade. Findings show a double role for Brussels: i) Belgian actors constitute a strong research system able to win competitive R&D calls, ii) EU-related actors play a fundamental role in establishing research networks making Brussels also the ‘European research capital’. The analysis is based on an innovative database of FP projects from 1999 to 2010 that is able to distinguish across different types of research actors and their capacities to establish supra-local knowledge networks.