A Discrepancy between Government Goals and Practice

While there are many problems regard-ing science in the transitional period in Slovenia, this article concentrates on only one, but the most crucial: the so-cial barriers preventing stronger links between the research produced at aca-demic institutions and the development of industry. The causes for these barri-ers are numerous. As in (all) other post-communist countries, academic science in Slovenia is in too large an extent on its own, without a suitable involvement with the industrial sector. It is not possi-ble, in a single article, to analyse com-prehensively all the issues regarding the complex forms of cooperation between academic science and industry, but let us list, at the very beginning, some of the most evident, which should be subject for further discussion: insufficient re-search efforts in industry, uncertainties about the quality of the knowledge transfer system, researchers ’ lack of in-dustrial experience and immobility of academic researchers. The social situation is never com-pletely homogeneous. Therefore, any discussion of problems regarding the transfer of academic scientific knowl-edge to industry should take into ac-count the whole socio-political and his-torical context. The transition of the R&D system in Slovenia suffers from similar structural problems as R&D systems in most other East and Central European countries. Notwithstanding, there exist also important differences. Slovenia is considered to be one of the most socio-economically developed Eastern and Central European countries in transi-tion. It has always been the most devel-oped and industrialised part of former Yugoslavia, with the highest standard of living, an intensive manufacturing sec-tor and very strong foreign trade. GNP per capita is now about $10 000. Assess-ments by external observers are that Slovenia has executed a successful tran-sition to democratic political rule in th