The analysis of social networks has remained a crucial and yet understudied aspect of the efforts to measure

Triple Helix linkages. The Triple Helix model aims to explain, among other aspects of knowledge-based

societies, “the current research system in its social context” (Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff 2000:109). This

paper develops a novel approach to study the research system from the perspective of the individual, through

the analysis of the relationships among researchers, and between them and other social actors. We develop a

new set of techniques and show how they can be applied to the study of a specific case (a group of academics

within a university department). We analyse their informal social networks and show how a relationship exists

between the characteristics of an individual’s network of social links and his or her research output.