The knowledge-based economy places great importance on the creation, diffusion, transfer and use of information and knowledge. The determinants of success of enterprises (private and state-owned) are ever more reliant upon their effectiveness in gathering and using knowledge and their innovation capability. Enterprises (particularly multinational corporations) have professional teams at their core, coming from universities, industrial research laboratories and consultancies. R&D activities are performed by professionals with different education background, such as engineers and technicians. They are researchers who have a key role in the projects, but are taken as ‘impure’ researchers when compared with the ‘real’ ones, working in public research centres. With a growing number of R&D activities inside enterprises, there is the development of a professional group not identified by its education title, but by its tasks. R&D is performed by professionals in network dynamics who share a central common feature: knowledge development and/or transfer. Open innovation is increasing, enhancing the exchange of know-how between enterprises and where R&D professionals are key elements. In this session theoretical and methodological issues and empirical studies are covered, sharing a concern with the features and capabilities of R&D professionals and attending to their innovative performance.