Résumé
The aims of this paper are to examine the renewed role of the academic sector in the innovation chain, starting from traditional knowledge and wild genetic resources and ending with a final product marketed by bio-industries; to identify changes in the institutional framework in which scientists carry out their task; and to reorganize their interactions with the holders of traditional knowledge (TK) and genetic resources (GR). In the first part, we describe the role of scientists and the changing institutional environment in which they work. In the second part, we examine examples of institutional solutions set up by scientists to cope with this new institutional environment and to come to terms with their responsibility as an interface between different actors with different norms of behavior. (Résumé d'auteur)