By Norman Clark of the African Centre of Technology Studies (ACTS), James Smith at the University of Edinburgh, and Maija Hirvonen at the University of Edinburgh

The concept of ‘innovation system’ is used increasingly in current science policydiscourse as a metaphor to indicate the need for a much wider perspective on relevantdecision-making procedures than has been the case in the past. This paperexplores its use from the standpoint of the behaviour of an international agriculturalresearch institute located in Africa and focused on two vector-borne livestockdiseases, trypanosomiasis and theileriosis, which form case studies for this paper.The paper argues that adopting an innovation systems perspective could open upnew possibilities for research institutes of this type with impacts on both socioeconomic development and scientific quality that are likely to be positive