Universities have a pivotal role to play in the challenging restructuring process that economies are undergoing due to higher education’s critical role in the information age. Universities can contribute to this process of change by creating new knowledge as well as by shaping new skills, which are necessary for exploiting modern technologies and understanding how technology interacts with society. The aim of this paper is to compare universities from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in terms of creativity related to research and educational activity. The knowledge triangle concept is employed to compare involvement of universities in education, research, and innovation. The divisive hierarchical clustering was used to group countries by knowledge triangle performance. Five clusters have been identified regarding research-education-innovation interactions. The study contributes by shedding light on education as the missing link between research and innovation in the CEE countries and extends knowledge about heterogeneity of this region in terms of creativity. It also contributes to the discourse how innovation policies can support universities’ structural transformations towards integration of their education, research, and innovation activities that will enable to confront an array of societal challenges.

Cancer burden in the European Union (EU) is increasing and has stimulated the European Commission (EC) to develop strategies for cancer control. A common “one size fits all” prevention policy may not be effective in reducing cancer morbidity and mortality. The goal of this paper is to show that EU member states are not homogenous in terms of their exposure to risk factors for cancer (i.e., lifestyle, socio-economic status (SES), air pollution, and vaccination). Data from a variety of sources including Eurostat, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, the European Health Interview Survey, Eurobarometer, and the European Environment Agency were merged across years 2013–2015 and used to develop a cluster analysis. This work identified four patterns of cancer prevention behaviors in the EU thus making it possible to group EU members states into four distinct country clusters including: sports-engaged countries, tobacco and pollutant exposed nations, unhealthy lifestyle countries, and a stimulant-enjoying cluster of countries. This paper finds that there is a need for closer collaboration among EU countries belonging to the same cluster in order to share best practices regarding health policy measures that might improve cancer control interventions locally and across the EU.

The study aims at estimating the effects of support for research and development and innovation from the European Union (EU) budget for boosting innovation in European enterprises, using input, output, and behavioral additionality approach. The study is based on microdata of the Community Innovation Survey 2012–2014, covering a sample of 98,809 enterprises from 14 EU countries. The direct and indirect relationships between the variables were studied using path analysis. For the whole sample, three additionality dimensions were confirmed; however, the result differs across EU member states. Multi-additionality of EU grants was confirmed only for Spain; in eight EU countries, input and behavioral additionality were proved, and in two, only behavioral additionality was found. This leads to the conclusion that the potential of EU support is not fully exploited, in particular in Central and Eastern European countries, and there is room for improvements with regard to policy design and implementation.

To date, no results have been published regarding cluster analysis of risk factors for cancer in Poland. Many cancer deaths are preventable through the modification of cancer risk behaviours. This study explores the multidisciplinary connection between lifestyle, environment and socio-economic status (SES). Cluster analyses indicate that major metropolitan areas and large industrial regions differ significantly in terms of SES, lifestyle and environment when compared with other parts of Poland. Our findings show that in order for interventions to be effective, cancer-prevention policy should be addressed on both local and national scales. While anti-cancer policies in Poland’s industrial regions should focus on air pollution, the country’s northern regions should aim to curb smoking, increase sports activity and improve SES. Policy interventions must target the root causes of cancer in each region of Poland and must account for SES.

The paper examines the extent to which the inflow off oreign direct investment (FDI) helps Poland to catch up with the EU. FDI can facilitate the process of catching up mainly through transfer and diffusion of technology, which leads to upgrading oftechnological and innovative potential ofa host country. The paper is aimed at assessing whether FDI is correlated with the innovation processes in different branches ofthe Polish industry. A regression analysis conducted in this paper has confirmed that, except for low-technology industries, FDI impacts Poland’s innovation efforts and thus helps Poland to catch up with the EU.