Christopher Freeman

Academic activity

Freeman was the founder and the first Director, from 1966 to 1982 of SPRU, the Science Policy Research Unit of the University of Sussex, England, and RM Phillips Professor of Science Policy and later Professor emeritus of at the University of Sussex. His fields of specialization were the economics of innovation and technical change, science and technology indicators, the diffusion of technologies, structural change in the world economy, and the "catch-up" efforts of developing countries. In 1986, on his formal retirement, he became visiting professor at the Aalborg University in Denmark and professorial fellow at the now Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

Besides his intellectual contributions in the economics of innovation and systems of innovation, Christopher Freeman was 'an academic entrepreneur'. Among the innovations for which he was responsible was 'The Frascati Manual', an OECD venture meant to collect and standardize the statistics on R&D, and the subsequent stream of work science and technology indicators at OECD and around the world. Secondly, he set up, shaped and for many years directed the Science Policy Research Unit, SPRU, which during the 1970s and 1980s was the pioneering institution in the field. Thirdly, with colleagues at SPRU, in the United States, in France and in Germany, he founded and edited for over 30 years the journal 'Research Policy', establishing it as the leading journal in the field.

He introduced the concept of National System of Innovation with B.-Å. Lundvall and Richard Nelson.

He mentored several generations of economists and social scientists working on technical change, innovation and the knowledge society. Among them, Keith Pavitt, Luc Soete, Carlota Perez, Mary Kaldor, B.-Å. Lundvall, Igor Yegorov, Giorgio Sirilli, Daniele Archibugi, Giovanni Dosi and Jan Fagerberg. His intellectual legacy has extended to almost every continent through SPRU graduates, some of whom have applied his thinking to the role of innovation in development in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Programs that have their origins in his work can be traced at leading public policy institutions such as the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.

Awards and honors

Freeman held several honorary doctorates including those from the Universities of Linköping, Sweden; Sussex, Middlesex, Birmingham, and Brighton. He received the 1987 Bernal Prize, the 1988 Schumpeter Prize, and the 1993 Prix International du Futuroscope. In 2007 he was awarded with the Silver Kondratieff Medal by the International N. D. Kondratieff Foundation and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (RAEN). The Freeman Centre building in Brighton, home to CENTRIM and SPRU, is named after him.

Alleged scandal

In 2002, after the archives of the DDR (Democratic Republic of Germany) become public, Franziska Orgstein claimed on the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, that during the war, Freeman had a sentimental affair with Queen Elisabeth, to become later the Queen Mother, when he was a Guards officer to Balmoral. Freeman was a young officer with a degree from the London School of Economics: "The young and attractive Queen saw the handsome officer and fell for him. A passionate affair ensued. Technically Freeman could have been charged with high treason and executed...but the affair prospered". The news, which bounced on English newspapers such as The Guardian (4 April 2002, diary by Matthew Norman) and The Independent (18 April 2002) has not been commented either by the Royal Family or by Freeman.

Publications

Works on Freeman

Mammo Muchie, Christopher Freeman: the founder and doyen of the economics of innovation theory Innovation and Development, Volume 1, Issue 1, 2011, pages 135-150, DOI:10.1080/2157930X.2011.575688