The importance of co-ordination in national technology policy: Evidence from the Galileo project

We assess the benefits from transatlantic collaboration in technology policy for publicly-funded R&D space projects such as Galileo, a proposed European radio-navigation space project. An industrial organisation methodology is employed to model negative security spillovers of 'unilateral' space projects such as Galileo, or space-based anti-ballistic missile defence, on the public sector of the other region (the US vs. the European Union). The findings imply that transatlantic co-ordination in technology policy is required to allow the respective space industries (in the US and the European Union) to exploit the benefits of cross-border strategic research partnerships (SRPs). This coordination not only reduces the costs of the respective programmes, but also addresses security concerns.