Christopher Freeman was a Britisheconomist, the founder and first director of Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, and one of the most eminent researchers in innovation studies, modern Kondratiev wave and business cycle theorists. Freeman contributed substantially to the revival of the neo-Schumpeterian tradition focusing on the crucial role of innovation for economic development and of scientific and technological activities for well-being.
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.
In 2002, after the archives of the DDR 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 British newspapers such as The Guardian and The Independent has not been commented either by the Royal Family or by Freeman.
Publications
Developing science, technology and innovation indicators: What we can learn from the past, Research Policy, 2009, vol. 38, issue 4, pages 583-589,
