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Eco-conferences like COP26 in Glasgow (UK) in 2021 have brought the debate on energy consumption and climate change to the fore. Given that a third of the energy produced worldwide is consumed in the home, it is pertinent to investigate how households use emerging technologies that allow households to monitor their energy consumption. This paper investigates how Danish households use green IT to monitor and manage their energy use and studies the related meaning householders attach to the green IT. We present qualitative data collected through interviews with 14 households, electric car owners mostly, who have adopted an application to monitor green energy availability – and its derived consumption. The paper highlights these householders' green energy monitoring practices with an emphasis on the meaning they make of the green IT application they used. Our study found that households can use more green energy without interacting continuously with the green IT application. This contrasts with a common assumption in the field of green IT design that consumers must continuously engage with the green IT to consume more green energy. We also posit that including householders in future green IT design is paramount for designing successful green IT applications. Finally, this paper calls for household energy consumption studies to view energy consumption as a service where specific practices are matched to energy sources – rather than viewing energy availability as a solitary incident. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a longitudinal case study in UK biotechnology covering some 30 years during which genomic technologies were introduced into pig breeding. This case study demonstrates how co-innovation involving existing small and medium sized enterprises, together with contributions from academics, has enabled companies to obtain the resources needed for value creation. Important contributions at critical junctures from public funding, pivotal contributions of individuals, and entry of new enterprises supplying essential resources, have enabled the fruitful realisation of new value creation. This paper contributes to the literature by taking a historical perspective, demonstrating how enabling long-term networking relationships including relevant academics, research institutions, funders and knowledge brokers has the potential to generate an innovation ecosystem that can respond effectively to a range of external challenges and take advantage of new techno-scientific opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since at least 2012, UK housing providers (and policy makers) have introduced policies aimed at developing autonomy and independence among service users, through an agenda sometimes referred to as 'responsibilisation'. This paper considers the role that technologies play in this agenda, through an analysis of how wellbeing and independence are facilitated amongst older social housing tenants. Based on case studies of four supported housing schemes in England, the research considers the capacity to exercise agency amongst older persons, through their willingness and ability to accept technological interventions, and the role of support networks to facilitate independent living. Using the concept of modalities of agency, the research examines the impact of implementing 'low-level' assistive technologies in the home, based on the perspectives of residents and staff. The interventions studied were designed to improve social relationships, promote self-sufficiency and support self-managed care (based on the principle that the most effective projects facilitate individual agency). The research findings identified that residents responded differentially to technology, based on their levels of capability, motivation, reluctance and resistance. Whilst the study demonstrated that small technological innovations could have disproportionately positive impacts in improving wellbeing, the research demonstrates the complex nature of agency and limits of responsibility. The paper argues that responsibilisation is part of a wider neoliberal project, where choice and agency are manufactured to create an idealised notion of the autonomous actor (in this case through technology-enabled care). The article argues that a collaborative approach to service provision in which responsibility is shared, via co-managed care, is a more effective means of enhancing agency, than one which advocates a withdrawal of support (in the guise of autonomy). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The roles digital media-technologies play in raising public issues relating to emerging technologies and their potential for engaging publics with science and policy assessments is a lively field of inquiry in Science and Technology Studies (STS). This paper presents an analysis of controversies over proposals for the large-scale removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CDR). The study combines a digital method (web-querying) with document analysis to map debates about two CDR approaches: bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and afforestation. In the first step, we locate actors using the web to engage with BECCS and afforestation and map their alignments in relation to competing framings of CDR. In a second step, we examine the devices deployed by UK-based actors to evidence and contest the feasibility of BECCS and afforestation. Our analysis shows that policy distinctions between "natural" and "engineered" CDR are used flexibly in practice and do not map neatly onto actor engagement with BECCS and afforestation. We highlight the predominance of cross-cutting techno-economic expertise and argue that framings of CDR as a solution to governing climate change may contribute to public disengagement from climate policy processes. The paper reflects on methods for studying controversies, publics, and issues emerging around processes of technoscientific assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel technologies such as quantum computing present new opportunities to support societal needs, but societal engagement is vital to secure public trust. Quantum computing technologies are at a pivotal point in their journey from foundational research to deployment, creating a moment for society to investigate, reflect, and consult on their implications. Responsible Innovation (RI) is one method for considering impacts, engaging with societal needs, reflecting on any concerns, and influencing the trajectory of the innovation in response. This paper draws on the empirical work of the RI team embedded in the Networked Quantum Information Technologies Hub. The team investigated researchers' perceptions of RI and their understanding of societal impacts of quantum technologies, and sought to gauge the challenges of embedding RI across a multi-disciplinary, large-scale enterprise such as the UK quantum programme. The work demonstrated some of the difficulties involved in embedding RI approaches, and in creating a dialogue between innovators and societies. Finally, the authors offer recommendations to policymakers, researchers, and industrial organisations, for better practice in responsible quantum computing, and to ensure that societal considerations are discussed alongside commercial motivations. Applying RI to quantum computing at this pivotal point has implications for RI in other emerging technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Walking has substantial unrealised potential as a mode for short journeys. • Walking as a Service (WaaS) represents a contributor to realising this potential. • WaaS can resolve the spatial and temporal cognition challenges of walking. • WaaS has a business model founded upon selling geography not mobility. • WaaS could support sustainability and profitability with a Circle of Virtue. Amidst the hype and prospects offered by technological innovation for shaping the future of mobility, it can be easy to overlook the humble and enduring place and potential of walking as a means of movement in our mobility system. Yet walking may already be part of the change taking place, as technological innovation and behaviour come together. This paper considers the potential significance of pedestrian navigation that has been placed in the hands of smartphone users, referring to it as 'Walking as a Service' (WaaS). For individuals physically able to, walking can provide a number of positive attributes including independence, reliability, flexibility, exercise and affordability. Such attributes may compare favourably with other means of transport for shorter journeys. Yet in spite of this it is often not the mode of choice. One of its limitations can be the cognitive challenge – when faced with the unfamiliar - of judging how long a journey could take on foot and determining how to navigate to the destination. Google Maps Navigation now addresses this with what appears to be ever improving attention to usability. Audio-visual assistance 'holds your hand' on your journey and keeps track of how far you have left to go and the estimated time needed. With a focus on the UK, the paper explores the prospects for, and place of, WaaS in the future of mobility, also highlighting an apparent sharp increase in average walking trip rate from 2015 to 2018. It draws out a distinction between the business model of Mobility as a Service (MaaS - which sells access to mobility) and that of WaaS (which sells access to geography and consumers) and puts forward the WaaS Circle of Virtue wherein WaaS is able to support sustainability and profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency enables distributed off-grid renewable energy systems—from solar home systems to renewable micro-grids—to deliver energy services that otherwise might be economically or technically infeasible in resource-constrained settings. When super-efficient appliances are used, the total cost of solar home systems and their associated appliances can be reduced by as much as 50% (Phadke et al. 2015). The authors of this paper will first explore the broader interplay of energy access and energy efficiency for off- and weak-grid settings by sharing learnings from the Efficiency for Access Coalition and the UK aid funded Low-Energy Inclusive Appliances (LEIA) program. To serve as a concrete example among off-grid appliance technologies, this paper will then explore the work of LEIA and other Coalition partners to accelerate cost and efficiency improvements in off-grid refrigeration. Refrigeration presents significant technical challenges to off-grid energy systems because of high-energy demand in addition to the lack of consistent and comparable performance data to help market stakeholders make effective and informed decisions about product selection. To help address this knowledge gap in the market, this paper presents the findings of a baseline product testing effort used to establish a foundational understanding of the field performance of commercially available off-grid refrigerators. The paper further explores the role of innovation cash prizes in catalyzing technology innovation and market expansion of off-grid refrigeration analyzing them through the lens of the Global Lighting and Energy Access Partnership (Global LEAP) Off-Grid Refrigerator Competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused huge and disruptive technological changes in the healthcare sector, transforming the way businesses and societies function. To respond to the global health crisis, there have been numerous innovation projects in the healthcare sector, including the fast design and manufacturing of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical devices, and testing, treatment, and vaccine technologies. Many of these innovative activities happen beyond organizational boundaries with collaboration and open innovation. In this paper, we review the current literature on open innovation strategy during the pandemic and adopt the co-evolution view of business ecosystems to address the context of change. Based on a detailed exploration of the COVID-19-related technologies in the UK and global healthcare sectors, we identify the key emerging themes of open innovation in crisis. Further discussions are conducted in relation to each theme. Our results and analysis can help provide policy recommendations for the healthcare sector, businesses, and society to recover from the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using diverse sources, including archaeological evidence, this paper scrutinises the technology of the ordinary British Atlantic merchant ship, assessing continuity and change during the formation and development of the Atlantic empire (1600–1800). The paper argues that observable continuities and changes in rig, in hull design, and in defensive armament were responses to risks posed to owners, builders, and crews. I state that ‘risk mitigation’ was the main policy of the actors involved in the business, thus suggesting an innovative research path to assess decisions to innovate and decisions not to. This can thus contribute to a better understanding of Atlantic and technological history, as well as to an understanding of risk mitigation as a driving force in business and technology, beyond the more commonly used concept of disruptive innovations. Naturally, changes did take place, and investigate why that is helps us understand the continuity more fully, and ship technology more fully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By the end of the Second World War, thanks to government encouragement and support, Britain's aero-engine manufacturers had a series of world-beating axial jet engines. By tracing institutional changes, this paper will show how the Royal Aircraft Establishment's remit expanded during the second world war to include state design of components of aero-engines for the first time. Overlooking the contributions of civil servants to innovation has made us blind to the many ways in which the British state supported and shaped new technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we reflect on our experience as science and technology studies (STS) researchers who were members of the working group that produced A Synthetic Biology Roadmap for the UK in 2012. We explore how this initiative sought to govern an uncertain future and describe how it was successfully used to mobilize public funds for synthetic biology from the UK government. We discuss our attempts to incorporate the insights and sensibilities of STS into the policy process and why we chose to use the concept of responsible research and innovation to do so. We analyze how the roadmapping process, and the final report, narrowed and transformed our contributions to the roadmap. We show how difficult it is for STS researchers to influence policy when our ideas challenge deeply entrenched pervasive assumptions, framings, and narratives about how technological innovation necessarily leads to economic progress, about public reticence as a roadblock to that progress, and about the supposed separation between science and society. We end by reflecting on the constraints under which we were operating from the outset and on the challenges for STS in policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of clinical trials in regenerative medicine innovation, exploring how trials have contributed to translational challenges in the field. Using data from an ethnographic study of UK cell therapy trials I interrogate the institutional framework for clinical trials and the identity-making of trialists. This analysis uncovers a disconnect between a commercially-aligned regulatory framework and a clinical-academic identity apparent in the majority of current trialling activity. These different pathways appear to represent two distinct sociotechnical imaginaries for cell therapies; one which reflects the assumptions of commercial innovation and prioritizes economic success, and another which embodies the cultural expectations of academia and emphasizes the importance of clinical care. These two imaginaries operate in synergy to some extent but there are significant tensions between them. How and to what extent these tensions are reconciled is likely to determine both the long-term success and the future shape of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nuclear Decommissioning Projects and Programmes (NDPs) are jeopardized by several risks, long schedule and cost estimates that lay in the range of hundreds of billions of pounds. Moreover, in some countries, these estimates keep increasing and key stakeholders have a limited understanding of the determinants that engender this phenomena. Benchmarking refers to the process of comparing projects in order to identify best practices and generate ideas for improvement. However, even if it is the envisaged approach to tackle the decommissioning challenges (and due to the NDPs' uniqueness), until now, benchmarking has been only partially used. This paper proposes an innovative methodology to benchmark decommissioning projects, both from the nuclear and non-nuclear industry, within the UK and worldwide. From this cross-sectorial and cross-country analysis, it is possible to gather a list of key NDPs' characteristic and statistically test their correlation with the project performance. The ultimate aim of the research underpinning this paper is to investigate the possible causation between the NDPs' characteristics and the NDPs' performance and to develop guidelines to improve the selection, planning and delivery of future NDPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The technological vision of smart urbanism has been promoted as a silver bullet for urban problems and a major market opportunity. The search is on for firms and governments to find effective and transferable demonstrations of advanced urban technology. This paper examines initiatives by the UK national government to facilitate urban technological innovation through a range of strategies, particularly the TSB Future Cities Demonstrator Competition. This case study is used to explore opportunities and tensions in the practical realisation of the smart city imaginary. Tensions are shown to be partly about the conjectural nature of the smart city debate. Attention is also drawn to weakened capacity of urban governments to control their infrastructural destiny and also constraints on the ability of the public and private sectors to innovate. The paper contributes to smart city debates by providing further evidence of the difficulties in substantiating the smart city imaginary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local authorities in the United Kingdom are required to 'lead' multi-agency humanitarian responses to major disasters. Concerns mounted in the late twentieth century that responses to people bereaved in the immediate aftermath of such events at best failed to meet their needs and at worst compounded their distress. Subsequent reviews and reforms reframed some victim needs as 'rights' and established legal, administrative, and practice frameworks to improve matters. Local authority 'crisis support', provided in partnership with other actors, lies at the heart of the UK's contemporary emergency response to the bereaved. Drawing on primary research on the development and the deployment of crisis support in a local authority, and while acknowledging both incident- and context-related difficulties, this paper considers the significance of challenges with their origins in organisational factors. Recent developments within and between responders may exacerbate them. This paper argues, therefore, that further research into such developments is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the rise of synthetic nitrogen in Great Britain and its empire, from the First World War to the aftermath of the Second World War. Rather than focus solely on technological innovations and consumption statistics, it seeks to explain how nitrogen was a central element in the expansion of a form of agricultural governance, which needed simplified, stable, and seemingly universal input/output formulae. In the first half of the twentieth century, nitrogen was thus gradually constructed as a global indicator of development, as it was particularly adapted to scientific and political regimes increasingly relying upon abstraction and quantification. Yet, the history of nitrogenous fertilizers in the interwar years also shows that this cannot be reduced to a simple story of triumphant modernity, as their development and globalization was imperfect, unstable, accompanied by resistance and the resilience or emergence of other models. Rather than assuming an all-powerful "state" project, the paper thus seeks to recover the multiplicity of actors, and attempts to account for the rise of nitrogenous fertilizers; not just as the progressive application of a technological breakthrough, but as a difficult process embedded in technological, financial, and military constraints, corporate strategies, political imperatives, and the changing institutional framework of agricultural research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the expectation work required to ensure that technological innovation initially supported by government funding is subsequently taken up by market actors? This paper explores this question by applying a linked ecologies framework to the study of the Copyright Hub, a digital infrastructure for Intellectual Property trading developed in the UK. We draw our analysis from a five year long study, including forty-six interviews and six weeks of participant observation. We found that expectation work in policy-led infrastructural communities entails (1) leveraging technology to reshape the position of actors in the innovation space; (2) exploiting the different temporalities of expectation work in allied ecologies and (3) mobilising 'slow' expectations to provide momentum to the newly arranged innovation space. Highlighting difference in temporal dynamics for the various partners involved as a 'hinging' factor, our analysis contributes to clarifying the complex temporal alignment of policy and innovation processes in technology projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological change is necessary for economies to grow and develop. This paper investigates how this technological change could be directed in order to simultaneously reduce carbon-intensive energy use and deliver a range of economic benefits. Using both partial and general equilibrium modelling, we consider improvements in the efficiency in the delivery of electricity as an increasingly low carbon option in the UK. We demonstrate how linking this to policy action to assist and encourage households to substitute away from more carbon-intensive gas- to electricity- powered heating systems may change the composition of energy use, and implied emissions intensity, but not the level of the resulting economic expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Energy-related investment decisions in the buildings sector are heterogeneous in that the outcome for each individual varies according to budget, values, and perception of a technology, even if an apparently identical decision task is faced. In particular, the rate of adoption of new energy-efficient technologies is often hard to model and underlines the need for an advanced approach to capture diversity in decision-making, and enable the inclusion of economic, comfort, environmental and social aspects. This paper presents an enhanced agent-based model that captures several characteristics of consumer behaviour that influence investment decisions. Multiple agents with different objectives, search strategies, and decision methods are implemented. A case study is presented which illustrates the benefits of the approach for the residential sector in the UK. The agent-based method shows diversity in investment decisions, without requiring the constraints on uptake needed in many models. This leads to a range of technologies in the market during a transition phase, continuous investment in low capital cost technologies, and eventually the emergence of a low carbon system based on new mass market technologies. The system that emerges is vastly different from one observed when economically rational investment is assumed and uptake constraints are applied. Highlights • An enhanced building sector model using an agent-based method. • Represent real-world decision making for investment in energy technologies. • A method to model the limits, barriers and speed of consumer technology adoption. • Modelling framework adaptable to different geographical regions. • A case study is investigated for the residential sector in the United Kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives a personal perspective on the growth of in-house legal teams within law firms. It suggests why these departments have emerged as a response to greater legal and regulatory challenges, changes in the profession and a quest for professionalism and cost effectiveness. The paper examines the work of a substantial team and the parallels and differences between a role in that organisation and other forms of legal practice. Finally, it considers the future for these in-house teams in the light of regulatory and organisational factors and the possible implications of technological innovation on staffing and work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a systematic review of academic literature and policy papers since 2008 is undertaken with an aim of identifying the prevalent energy systems models and tools in the UK. A list of all referenced models is presented and the literature is analysed with regards sectoral coverage and technological inclusion, as well as mathematical structure of models. The paper compares available models using an appropriate classification schema, the introduction of which is aimed at making the model landscape more accessible and perspicuous, thereby enhancing the diversity of models within use. The distinct classification presented in this paper comprises three sections, which specify the model purpose and structure, technological detail and mathematical approach. The schema is not designed to be comprehensive, but rather to be a broad classification with pertinent level of information required to differentiate between models. As an example, the UK model landscape is considered and 22 models are classified in three tables, as per the proposed schema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weather radars produce high spatial and temporal resolution observations of precipitation events. Over the years, weather radar operators have updated their radar networks to exploit the latest technological advancements. One of the most significant improvements in this matter was providing the radars with polarimetric capabilities, as this allows the radars to gather more detailed information about the precipitation targets' shape, size, phase, and orientation. The radar research community has been working along with these advancements to develop robust algorithms that boost the radar data applications, such as radar quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE), rain microphysics analysis, nowcasting of precipitation or numerical weather prediction based on radar measurements. Some of these algorithms have been implemented in open-source toolboxes that aim to facilitate the processing and quality control of radar data produced by different radar systems. However, these open-source toolboxes have not yet included a chain process tailored to the UK radar research context. This paper presents a TOolbox to process WEather Radar data in PYthon (Towerpy). Towerpy can read, process and display polarimetric radar data from different radar systems, but it is specially customised for data produced by the UK Met Office radar network. Towerpy is built upon robust algorithms that cover various aspects of the radar data quality control (e.g., calibration of radar measurements, identification of non-meteorological echoes, attenuation correction, among others) and the computation of radar rainfall rates. Additionally, a radar processing chain was devised using the Towerpy modules to produce radar rainfall estimates. Raw polarimetric radar measurements collected by the UK Met Office radar network throughout the UK's wettest day on record were used as input for this processing chain. The results confirm that Towerpy is a powerful radar research tool and demonstrate its ability to generate functional radar QPE that can be used to improve operational radar rainfall products. • We present Towerpy, a Python toolbox to process polarimetric weather radar data. • Towerpy provides robust algorithms for radar data quality control and radar QPE. • We set a processing chain that estimates rain rates to show Towerpy's capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The aim of this work is to provide an initial picture of how some design agencies are contributing toward a paradigm shift and how they are developing in the future to better inform design policies and interdisciplinary work. There is a general agreement that the current government and public sector structure and modes of operation need radical transformation. In this scenario, a shift from New Public Management towards New Public Governance paradigm has been auspicated. Design has attracted attention as a potential approach to support this transformation, but research into Service Design, as well as discussions on its future development, for public sector innovation is limited. This paper is an exploratory study into the individual work of seven representative UK design agencies operating for and within the public sector. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews literature on public sector reform and innovation to inform comparative studies of contemporary design agencies working for public sector reform. Interviews with seven designers from NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, Participle, Innovation Unit, Uscreates, Collaborative Change, Futuregov and Snook are conducted to review their perceived role for public sector reform, their design approaches, exemplar projects and main challenges. Findings – Emerging design strategies for Public Sector reform are: a collaborative design approach that considers all stakeholders as equal co-creators of public value; operating at different complementary levels to aim at systemic change; designing from the inside out (innovation culture) and outside in (market change). These different strategies imply the development of possible different business models. Existing creative tensions appear between embedding and outsourcing strategies, acting as facilitators vs designers, developing both designing and service delivery roles. Research limitations/implications – This paper is based on a limited sample of design agencies, and it is not a systematic study into the impact of their design work, which should be the object of a following study. Practical implications – This paper brings Service Design practice into public sector innovation debate to inform future interdisciplinary research and innovation policies. It positions existing design innovation strategies within the wider picture of public sector reform to support a more informed design practice. Originality/value – Few studies have looked at the UK design agencies for public sector innovation and discussed their possible future developments. This paper provides an original and holistic description of design for public sector innovation with considerations on how it should be interpreted when developing supporting innovation and design policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Triple-Helix model of knowledge-industry-government relationships is one of the most comprehensive attempts to explain the changing institutional frameworks for innovation and growth, especially in the regional and urban contexts. Since the 1970s policies have been developed across Europe to evolve this institutional landscape. Since the late 1990s, regional and urban development strategies have also sought to harness the growth potential of the cultural and creative industries to regional and urban economic development. However, whilst the regional and urban planning literature has examined the growth-promoting potential of universities very closely, their possible role in relation to regional and urban creative economic development has received less attention. This paper aims to begin addressing this gap by interrogating the relationship between universities and the regional creative economy using, as a starting point, a model of analysis suggested by the Triple-Helix theoretical framework. The paper finds that whilst universities possess often long and hidden associations with regional and urban creative activities-as hidden protagonists-there are important institutional and professional challenges in the possibility of their developing an explicit and sustainable role as new actors in the regional and urban creative economies. The paper identifies the nature of these challenges with a view to developing a clearer understanding of the system, policy and institutional realities that underpin the often complex dynamics of knowledge creation-practice relationships found in arts and humanities disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Smart Meter Implementation Programme (SMIP) is arguably one of the most expansive and complex smart meter programmes globally. The UK government regards smart meters to be enablers of a low-carbon energy grid and has set out ambitious consumer-orientated aims within their programme across England, Scotland, and Wales. Despite considerable amount of research on how consumers will (or not) engage with smart meters, media discourses, where some public debates about smart meters are created and reproduced, have received little attention. This paper presents a content analysis of how smart meters are discussed within 11 years of popular print media coverage. A collection of nine discourses are identified: Four of these – “empowered consumers”, “energy conscious world”, “low-carbon grid”, and “future smart innovation” – depict smart meters as a harbinger of positive social change. Five of these – “hacked and vulnerable grid”, “big brother”, “costly disaster”, “astronomical bills”, and “families in turmoil” – represent smart meters as negative forces on society. The results show that discourses and associated storylines mainly represent continuous struggles over particular socio-technical promises linked to smart meters. Somewhat missing are attempts to open up the smart energy debate to broader issues of democracy and energy justice within the print media coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the roles of institutions in facilitating or impeding the creation of new technological pathways in different countries. It is argued that the successful invention, innovation and diffusion of new technologies require the co-evolution of relevant institutions. It is argued that informal institutions, through their impact on people's beliefs, perceptions and consequential behaviour, crucially influence whether formal institutions coevolve with technological development and changing circumstances. At the same time, the rigidity of the pre-existing formal institutional arrangements impacts on whether agents can stimulate their co-evolution with the introduction of new technologies. These arguments are explored by comparing the creation of new wind power technologies in Britain and Germany since the 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of the network paradigm has led to growing interest in understanding network structures relating to knowledge flows and patterns of regional innovation. This paper explores the structure of knowledge networks stemming from ties between universities and other actors, principally firms. Based upon a network analysis of empirical data for regions across the UK, it is found that the most innovative and economically developed regions are more likely to be the location for actors holding highly central and influential positions within knowledge network architectures. It is concluded that network structures, and resulting stocks of structural network capital, influence patterns of regional innovation and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the emergence of energy communities, where a number of prosumers invest in shared generation and storage, the issue of fair allocation of benefits is increasingly important. The Shapley value has attracted increasing interest for redistribution in energy settings — however, computing it exactly is intractable beyond a few dozen prosumers. In this paper, we first conduct a systematic review of the literature on the use of Shapley value in energy-related applications, as well as efforts to compute or approximate it. Next, we formalise the main methods for approximating the Shapley value in community energy settings, and propose a new one, which we call the stratified expected value approximation. To compare the performance of these methods, we design a novel method for exact Shapley value computation, which can be applied to communities of up to several hundred agents by clustering the prosumers into a smaller number of demand profiles. We perform a large-scale experimental comparison of the proposed methods, for communities of up to 200 prosumers, using large-scale, publicly available data from two large-scale energy trials in the UK (UKERC Energy Data Centre, 2017, UK Power Networks Innovation, 2021). Our analysis shows that, as the number of agents in the community increases, the relative difference to the exact Shapley value converges to under 1% for all the approximation methods considered. In particular, for most experimental scenarios, we show that there is no statistical difference between the newly proposed stratified expected value method and the existing state-of-the-art method that uses adaptive sampling (O'Brien et al., 2015), although the cost of computation for large communities is an order of magnitude lower. • Systematic study of Shapley value approximation methods for community energy applications. • New deterministic method for approximating the Shapley value for large communities. • New methodology to allow systematic comparison of different Shapley approximations. • Experimental comparison using data from two large-scale energy trials from the UK. • Redistribution very close to real Shapley values, but at much lower computation cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With digitalization and the support of policies, the creative industries have shown rapid growth in the last 20 years. Open forms of collective learning, user engagement and social networks have become popular to generate IPs and values. Meanwhile, government policy can support the sectors through subsidies, regulations, standardization, and protections at regional and national levels. This paper aims to explore the role of government policy in the innovation of creative industries from a macro dynamic perspective. The research method combines a structured literature review, a secondary document review of industry reports and government policy, and thematic content analysis. Through in-depth studies of the UK's and China's animation sectors, the paper identifies key elements of closed innovation, social innovation, and open innovation systems in the market. Comparisons of national government policies since 2000 reveal different approaches for countries where creative sectors are well-established, and for those starting with limited knowledge resources. A dynamic model is developed to address the evolution of macro dynamic innovation systems and the role of policies as interactive mechanisms. Practical implementation and future research areas are also suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on primary research conducted with 22 senior publishing industry managers in the UK as a preliminary survey for a PhD. It seeks to establish a base on which to develop further research around the changes taking place in the organizational and collaborative behaviour of an industry facing digital challenges. The survey asked the 22 managing directors and operations and digital directors how they view current conditions in the industry in light of digital change. It allows subjects to speak for themselves in order to learn (a) how far-reaching they feel change is, (b) where that change is having most effect in their day-to-day business, (c) whether they themselves are making organizational changes, and (d) how far collaboration forms part of this change. The collaboration aspect of the survey unpicks in more detail how far collaborations are (a) increasing in frequency, (b) are changing in vision (i.e. more exploratory or not), and (c) involve different organizational behaviour. The research reveals many areas of clear consensus around key issues of technical competence, new patterns in consumption, entrepreneurship, and silo structures. There is an understanding that the ability to respond quickly and to innovate continuously is essential. On collaborations, most people concurred that they were entering more partnerships than in the past and that these were often more experimental in approach and involved sharing risk; ultimately, this points to a clearer strategy emerging in companies to develop structures, skills, and techniques to facilitate new styles of collaboration, which in turn may lead to new ways of innovating in a flexible, failure-tolerant way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effects of technological change on skill acquisition during the British Industrial Revolution. Based on a unique set of data on apprenticeships between 1710 and 1772, we show that both the number of apprentices and their share in the cohort of the fifteen year-olds increased in response to inventions. The strongest response was in the highly skilled mechanical trades. These results suggest that technological change in this period was skill biased due to the expansion of the machinery sector they induced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation intermediaries are critical enablers of inward and outward technology and knowledge transfer processes, particularly in domains and industries that are characterised by high complexity. Nanotechnology as a radical, generic technology is one such domain, which spans a plethora of different industries. As a result, intermediary organisations are essential for the future development and commercialisation of these technologies. However, little is known with regard to the inner workings of intermediaries and the knowledge management (KM) processes and capabilities deployed to facilitate matchmaking. Using an in-depth case study, the paper explores the key knowledge related challenges the intermediary faces and the KM processes and capacities utilised to facilitate intermediation. It is found that knowledge creation and exploration, knowledge storage, and knowledge transfer capacities are key capabilities that are enabled by the intermediary's proprietary access to an extensive network database. Results of the study have implications for both managers engaged or seeking to engage with intermediaries as well as managers of intermediaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practical operationalisation of resilience within cities is strongly linked to technology, such as better construction materials or redesigning urban form. Institutional and private sector actors often focus on issues relating to the technological innovation journey, such as 'pathways' to implementation or 'barriers' to market uptake, rather than whether adaptive technologies are the most appropriate resilience solution. These discourses frame urban resilience from the perspective of an innovation journey where technologies are perceived to succeed if there is high uptake. However, given the multi-perspective and multi-scale nature of urban resilience, the idea of 'success' inevitably has complex spatial, temporal and scalar dimensions. The paper uses the case of property level flood resilience (PFR) technologies in the United Kingdom to introduce the notion of 'contingent resilience' as a means to understand the trade-offs that are part of assessing and evaluating climate resilient technologies. We reveal that there are fundamental contradictions in what is deemed as a 'success' depending on who is framing the problem, when the judgement is made, or where the scale of analysis lies. Above all, the paper highlights the importance of illuminating the struggles that do not just define success, but that spatially and temporally redistribute climate resilience in a hidden manner. • Climate resilience in urban areas is increasingly turning to adaptive technologies in practice. • Governments define success via innovation journeys and market uptake. • Success in adaptive technologies varies between actors, across scales, and over time. • We should recognise the continency of resilience when appraising the success of adaptive technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper summarises the results of a UK/Canada funded project on "next generation" evacuation drills. • We provide the results of a community consultation exercise. • This examined alternatives to evacuation drills, and established comparison criteria. • This work lays the foundation for enhanced evidence-based evacuation drills. Evacuation drills are generally the main mechanism for improving or measuring occupant performance in emergency situations, but their effectiveness is often hard to measure, and there is limited evidence for sustained training benefits. However, innovations in technology (e.g., augmented/virtual reality, novel sensors and wearable tech) offer (when combined with new approaches to designing and delivering drills) significant opportunities for a "next generation" of evidence-based evacuation drills. In this paper, we present the findings of a recent trans-national research project; we establish the main limitations of existing drills, propose a framework for the assessment of both training and evaluation aspects of drills, make a number of recommendations, and suggest a programme of work for their implementation. The paper, therefore, provides a conceptual foundation for future work which will focus on (1) establishing an evidence-based methodology for assessing evacuation drills (and alternatives), (2) harnessing novel objective and automatable approaches to data capture/analytics in order to better characterize performance, (3), developing alternatives to the current drill model, based on emerging technologies, and (4) developing guidance for regulatory bodies on the costs and benefits of each approach for different scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmer-led innovation brings farmers together with other stakeholders in a collaborative endeavour that recognises multiple forms of expertise. Critical engagement with mainstream models of agricultural science and technology (AST) development has drawn attention to the isolation of farmers as technology adopters within a compartmentalised model of AST development and dissemination. Academic, government and non-governmental actors and organisations are increasingly supporting facilitated processes in which farmers, scientists and engineers develop new knowledge, learning together about the nature of the problems being faced and the potential of different solution pathways. Despite the centrality of learning to farmer-led innovation, its role has yet to be systematically explored. In response, this paper looks to understand the forms of learning and their contribution to farmer-led innovation during a three-year action-research project involving two groups of farmers from northern England and the Scottish Borders in the UK. A researcher-facilitator convened a structured process of twenty meetings that together created opportunities for interaction, deliberation and re-framing of problems and solutions among groups of farmers, a university-based engineer, and wider stakeholders. Multiple qualitative methods were used to build understanding of the different farming contexts and to explore the issues the farmers wanted to work on. Meeting transcripts and fieldnotes were subject to thematic analysis, informed by the analytical framework of cognitive, normative and relational learning derived from the social learning literature. Cognitive, normative and relational learning were found to be mutually interdependent and equally significant, building iteratively rather than linearly: the farmers and engineer assessed new information and reappraised existing situations; they did so informed by and informing a shift in understanding of their goals for new technology; and in so doing they relied on and developed the trust and confidence needed to acknowledge or challenge each other's perspectives. By orientating the group engagement process around the space to explore and challenge histories and contexts of AST, and by drawing on social learning principles to facilitate interaction between the different expertise of farmers and between farmers and engineers, learning emerged that interleaved technology co-design with incremental refinement of the shared norms and values embedded in the process itself. A focus on learning helps deepen understanding of key mechanisms and processes that define and deliver innovation, and the findings suggest that priorities for farmer-led innovation process design should focus on modalities that open up spaces to negotiate both the purpose and products of innovation. [Display omitted] • Farmer-led innovation is increasingly supported, relying on farmers and stakeholders learning together. • The forms of learning and their contribution to innovation are overlooked in research and practice. • Cognitive, normative and relational learning were mutually interdependent and equally significant in two farmer groups. • Learning was iterative, interleaving technology co-design with refinement of shared norms and values. • Opening spaces that recognise power and context allows negotiation of purpose and products of innovation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first financial analysis of the United Kingdom's local energy business sector. This analysis relies on financial ratios and degrees of localism as inputs for descriptive statistics, cluster, and canonical discriminant analyses. Our findings suggest that privately-owned energy businesses, typically with limited commitments to localities, account for the great majority of sectoral assets and turnover, and are in comparatively good financial condition. Highly-local energy businesses typically have low profitability and high reliance on debt. The latter is the key variable differentiating them from other less local energy businesses. Moreover, we find financial commonalities within different groups of local energy businesses, which correlate with their specific level of localism. In the context of increasing digitalisation in energy markets, more technological innovation may help strengthen local energy businesses' revenue sources and value creation. Further research is needed in terms of investability, specific financing terms and conditions, and geographical aspects of value creation, retention, and delivery to localities. This work can improve the understanding of sectoral dynamics and development needs, with value for policy making to incentivise investment in this emerging sector. • An analysis of the United Kingdom's local energy business sector is presented. • The analysis relies on financial ratios and estimates for degrees of localism. • Highly-local businesses typically have low profitability and high reliance on debt. • Businesses with limited local commitment usually have a good financial condition. • Research on investability, financing, and locational value creation are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]