Many advanced economies have well established science (or STEM) policies, including Anglophone, Western Europe and East Asian countries. While there is great variation in terms of the substance of these policies, many specifically encourage increased (international) scholarly collaboration. International collaboration policy may also be enshrined in national research and innovation policy, with research funding organisations frequently offering a range of initiatives to encourage international collaboration. STEM is frequently privileged, although international collaboration is also important for the humanities and social sciences disciplines (and similarly encouraged). You may be interested in global approaches to science policy (see The Age of STEM available at: https://www.academia.edu/8098448/Freeman_Marginson_and_Tytler_eds._-_The_Age_of_STEM_Policy_and_practice_in_science_technology_engineering_and_mathematics_across_the_world

You may also be interested in the STEM: Country Comparisons report at: https://www.academia.edu/3664766/STEM_Country_Comparisons_International_comparisons_of_science_technology_engineering_and_mathematics_STEM_education_Marginson_Tytler_Freeman_and_Roberts_

A country-by-country data file is also available at: https://www.academia.edu/3664688/Snapshots_of_23_Science_Technology_Engineering_and_Mathematics_STEM_consultants_reports_Characteristics_lessons_policies_and_programs

Regards, Brigid 

https://www.academia.edu/3664766/STEM_Country_Comparisons_International_comparisons_of_science_technology_engineering_and_mathematics_STEM_education_Marginson_Tytler_Freeman_and_Roberts_

https://www.academia.edu/8098448/Freeman_Marginson_and_Tytler_eds._-_The_Age_of_STEM_Policy_and_practice_in_science_technology_engineering_and_mathematics_across_the_world

Go to the EU's Joint Research Centre's website and look for the ERA reports. These reports provide a brief overview of the types of scientific collaboration policies employed by EU countries. Search under keywords such as internationalisation and collaboration. The reports are themselves citable and contain a rich datamine of references to both academic and scientific literature. To the best of my knowledge your last question is not elevant,. If a country has a research system and its scientific personnel are active in publishing and research internationally, there will be some type of support structure for this at the national level. This structure may be informal such as privisions for scientists to travel to foreign countries. It may also be more formalised and include arrangement for national researchers to bid for access to international research infrastructure such as CERN.

ERA country reports also contain country level  info on smart specialisation. Hope this helps

We have discussed some cases in https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262918068_International_collaborations_between_research_universities_Experiences_and_best_practices

Article International collaborations between research universities: ...

An intriguing topic.  I can't point to anything specific, but you might search the website of the US National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council and National Academy of Engineering for relevant reports.  This falls squarely within their purview.

My paper "Collaborative research, deliberation, and innovation," in the journal

Episteme 11 (03), 291-303, discusses some challenges to working collaboratively, and how to overcome them.  Specifically, it provides guidelines on how to avoid Groupthink, where a group converges on a consensus prematurely.

 See the projects sustained by the European Commission and more especially the Framework Programmes. In France, collaborative projects are mainly sustained by the ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche) or by the CNRS ("Groupement de Recherche" and "Fédérations"). 

You can also be interested in the work of Arvanitis & Losego regarding "science in non-hegemonic countries" (2008) and by the work of Laredo on "policy-making in science policy" (2013).

http://cordis.europa.eu/home_en.html

https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/node/115

http://www.agence-nationale-recherche.fr/en/projects-and-results/building-the-european-research-area-and-france-s-international-attractiveness/the-setting-up-european-or-international-scientific-networks-mrsei-instrument/

RG is one example of research collaboration. 

The development of the atomic bomb during World War Two, is a good example.  More recently, the international panels that develop and update technology standards.  The efforts are often managed through the United Nations. 

Taimur

Good point!  As well as Research Gate, there are many Internet networks (Academia.edu. etc.) that share and coordinate research. 

The Brazilian agencies which promote S,T and Innovation development (for example, CNPq and CAPES in the federal realm ) support international cooperation both with other agencies and individual researchers around the world, in both developed or developing countries by means of memorandum of understanding, agreements, etc, to promote joint projects and programs covering a lot of areas of knowledge. For example, the Science without Borders Program and Brazilian participation in international projects in big laboratories like CERN in Geneva. CNPq has a General Coordination of International Cooperation under the Directory of Institucional Affairs to make advance international cooperation in S, T and Innovation.

I can outline two important science-science contributions envolving Brazilian networks with support of Brazilian research institutes and universities. First, concering the Human Genoma Consortium and more recently the research to understand zica virus and its relation to microcephalie and other syndromes. In terms of environment protection and combat to the climate changes' impact, Brazilian scientists participate in international networks and is constructing a Plataform of Knowlwedge in Adaptation to  Climate Change in cooperation with the British Council and Newton Fund. The major part of the Amazonia rain forest is in the Brazilian territory and the Brazilian Government counts with national and international institutions to prevent deforestation and fire which destroy biodiversity and impact seriously the global climate. 

the six cultures study after WWII involved collaboration.

Adam - may I enquire into the "reason" for your question?  "Think tanks" were, and continue to be, sources of scientific and technical collaboration.  I am sure there are many histories available on various of these efforts.  Are you looking for "rules" that will facilitate scientific collaboration?  Does "top-down" work more effectively, or less effectively than "bottom-up?"  Who decides what "effective collaboration" amounts to?  Does the "crowd sourcing" effect work in scientific collaboration?  Is this "where you are going" or is it somewhere else?

Adam

Australia established a series of Cooperative Research Centres to achieve collaboration between and across scientific disciplines. These have now been operating long enough to allow a judgement to be made about their success. To gain insight into their operation, I refer you to the website of the peak body that advocates on their behalf, the CRC Association.

Of course, Australia has also enjoyed the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, CSIRO, for many decades. CSIRO has successfully collaborated across scientific disciplines but also with industry (as its title indicates). CSIRO is currently being crippled by partial withdrawal of government funding and a government directive to seek a higher proportion of its funds from industry. That is all very well for commercially focused research, but it leaves public-interest research and curiosity-led research underfunded.

http://crca.asn.au/

William,

thank you for your answer and questions. The reason for my question is a chapter of the book. I am writing with my colleagues. The book is on the geography of scientific collaboration. We need a chapter on related policies. We want to focus mainly on national policies, i.e. programmes (or projects) formulated and run by governmental organisations (or specific national agencies). A good example here are EU Framework Programmes, where the increase in international collaboration was one of the objectives.

Thanks Adam. To add to my previous answer, you might consider tracking some collaborative initiatives over a period of time and examining what has changed and why. A snapshot in time of a collaborative programme or project doesn't necessarily say a lot about the forces at work.

For this reason I recommend that you read David McKnight, 2012, Rupert Murdoch: an investigation of political power, First, Allen & Unwin. McKnight tracks the influence of Rupert Murdoch on three continents in the politicisation of science since the 1980s.

In Australia, the budgetary attacks on world-renowned CSIRO have their origin in its excellent climate science programs. The Murdoch press which has a dominant position in newspapers in this country has waged a continuous campaign against climate scientists and science in general. It has bullied governments, especially conservative ones, to withdraw funding from public good science. Murdoch's influence is strong in the US, the UK and Australia and he has worsened some of the regressive features of the neoliberal policy agenda, with its disregard for public good activity in general.

There is one other body in Australia that could be a good case study. The Australian Research Council is the main body handing out public funds for research (other than medical). Its policy guidelines encourage collaboration, as applications have a higher chance of success if they can involved other partners. The problem is that because of government budget cuts under the neoliberal ideology that has infected our governments, the funds available have been declining in real terms; and applicants for its main grant program now expect less than one in five chance of success . The workload involved in putting together a collaborative application to satisfy their guidelines is huge – typically a year – and is exhausting for busy researchers.

The ARC would warrant a mention in your book: its website has policy guidelines and the story of the decline in its funding over time would give you a longitudinal study.

http://www.arc.gov.au/