SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION AS A CONDITION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: A CASE OF ALBANIA

Dilemmas on economic growth and sustainable development continue to be part of contemporary economic debates mostly for economies of developing countries and for the economies of developed countries as well. Innovation and its management are considered as fundamental concepts to lead a country toward economic growth. Above all, innovation guarantees the sustainable and long term development. Global competitiveness fosters each state to give priority to R&D investment and innovation, whether technological or non- technological innovation. The current debate today is how to stimulate the economy of a country towards sustainable development? In analogy with this debate, another question is if any kind of innovation leads a country toward sustainable development or not? Many studies show that innovation in itself can lead to development but what leads to sustainable development is sustainable innovation. The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between sustainable development and sustainable innovation, focusing mainly on the essential role that this binomial plays to socio-economic progress in a developing country. The study is based on the case of Albania. Research question of this paper is: How oriented are science-society collaborations towards Sustainable Development and Innovation in Albania and how to strengthen such collaboration in the future? The main hypothesis is that current science-society collaborations are still in a moderate level oriented towards innovation and Sustainable Development. Some from the data of this study are collected for the 'CONSUS' project, whose purpose is the promotion of sustainable development and sustainable innovation in developing countries.