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Following a commitment in the White Paper on European Governance, the European Commission has adopted a set of principles and guidelines to be used by its departments when collecting and using expert advice for policy making. This paper outlines some of the issues tackled whilst drawing up this new code. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precautionary principle was developed in environmental politics as a guiding mechanism for governments where new technologies, products, and processes produced potential health or environmental problems but where scientific evidence could not explain why. Anecdotal evidence of fracking suggests that it might cause water pollution or subsidence, but the scientific evidence to support this proposition is not yet in place. This paper examines the actions of the UK and Dutch governments toward fracking. Although both governments have adopted the precautionary principle into national law, neither has directly invoked it in the field of fracking, relying instead on more conventional scientific understandings of risk. In line with other papers in Science and Public Policy, this article provides a comparative analytical analysis of scientific policy regulation. It does so by arguing that while notionally subscribed to the precautionary principle, the UK and Dutch authorities have been reluctant to use it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an influential economic entity, China's economic growth pattern is changing. The traditional way brought high-speed growth as well as caused environmental damage. The concept of environmental innovation, which combines the advantage of technology innovation and environmental consideration, has become a vital means to achieve sustainable development. Due to the double externality characteristic of environmental innovation, the government plays an important role in its development. Based on provincial panel data from 2008 to 2017, this paper first examines the distinct influences of various economic incentive instruments on environmental innovation. Then, the moderation role of marketization is explored. The results show that governments' direct financial expenditure on environmental protection has a positive impact on environmental innovation, while the effect of the environmental tax is not significant. In addition, the impact is negatively moderated by marketization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literatures on productive interactions and related frameworks depict impact processes as collaborative efforts to permeate various boundaries between research and societal stakeholders. However, the impact literature is biased towards looking at these processes from the researcher side. This paper analyses policymakers' interactions with researchers and the different forms of boundary work that ensue, which contributes to improved understanding of the stakeholder side of interactions. Our point of the departure is the interactions related to Research and development (R&D) units and their networks in the central administration in Norway. Using in-depth interviews with twenty-two civil servants in the field of welfare policy, we show how the combination of competitive and collaborative modes of boundary work makes interactions productive. Because research is a strategic asset in the policy domain, control over knowledge production and autonomy to decide when to follow the evidence (or not) is a central feature of knowledge work in policy organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online platforms serving the research community offer the potential to accelerate research efforts to solve societal challenges. Based on Semantic Web technologies, domain-specific research platforms can pave the way for a 'digital transformation' in science. Researchers will be able to share and analyse research data. A prerequisite for the success of such platforms is the identification and consideration of stakeholders' requirements. However, meeting all requirements is cost-intensive. Existing funding models cannot be easily transferred to such new online platforms. With this paper, we contribute to the discussion in science and politics on how the provision of research data can be organized via online platforms in the future. As a basis, this study empirically investigated funder and user requirements of an online platform for materials research data and conducted a cost analysis to assess possible funding models that might ensure the long-term operation of these platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policymakers increasingly emphasize knowledge collaboration between academia and society as important means to generate innovations and solve complex issues. However, while recent literature on such collaboration suggests that knowledge needs to be integrated and generated across disciplines and sectors, there are surprisingly few studies that define what is meant by 'knowledge' or focus on the process of generating knowledge. Subsequently, the aim of this paper is to unbox 'knowledge' in knowledge collaboration by focusing specifically on how knowledge is understood by heterogenous actors during the process of generating knowledge. We build on insights from an in-depth case study and contribute to the literature on knowledge collaboration by bringing in theory on boundary work that specifically addresses the knowledge generation process. We argue that to better meet the expectations of collaboration, there is a need for more discussions and focus on the participating stakeholders' heterogenous epistemological as well as ontological understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main question that guides this paper is how governments are focusing (and must focus) on competence building (education, training and skills) when designing and implementing innovation policies. After a brief literature review, this paper suggests a typology of internal/external and individual/organizational sources of competences that are related to innovation activities. This serves to examine briefly the most common initiatives that governments are taking in this regard. The paper identifies three overall deficiencies and imbalances in innovation systems in terms of education, training and skills: the insufficient levels of competences in a system, the time lag between firms' short-term needs for specific competences and the long time required to develop them, and the imbalances between internal and external sources of competences in firms. From these, the paper elaborates a set of overall criteria for the (re)design of policy instruments addressing those tensions and imbalances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public health research is overtly orientated towards influencing policy and yet, despite official commitments to ‘evidence-based policy’, most analyses conclude that the impact of public health research has been limited. Based on an analysis of post-1997 UK policy statements and interviews with 112 key actors, this paper argues that the failure of ‘evidence-based’ policy to emerge relates to the fact it is ideas, not evidence, which travel between research and policy, and that these malleable entities are translated as they move between actors. By unpacking six factors that appear to have shaped the ‘interplay of ideas’ about health inequalities, this paper draws attention to the ways in which policy influences research (as well as vice versa). The paper argues that two distinct ‘idea-types’ are evident within the data, each of which helps explain the difficulties in achieving ‘evidence-based’ policy responses to health inequalities: ‘institutionalised ideas’ and ‘chameleonic ideas’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyses public visions of microalgae as a food source to explain present innovation paths of a yet unproven scientific technology. The paper highlights the multi-perspectivity of contested futures, focusing on the role of generalized narratives as boundary objects. Using disaggregative policy Delphi, we reveal the key-narratives of microalgae nutrition with regard to expectability, desirability, and popularity. The study involved a two-round online survey with 229 participants, who were asked open and closed questions. We then clustered the answers and gave feedback in form of generalized narratives. Participants want microalgae to sustainably feed the world, while they also expect microalgae to be more likely a health product or an inconspicuous food substitute. Our findings show that Delphi methods are not only suitable to look into the future, but also for empirical research into perspectives on the future that help distinguish and hone the cognitive interest of politicians and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conditions of mainstream research funding constrain risky, novel research. However, alternative grants are emerging. We study grantees of a double-blinded funding scheme targeting risky, novel research: The Villum Experiment (VE). Without prompting, scientists juxtaposed the experience of performing research under these conditions with that of performing research funded by mainstream grants: fun and less fun. The conditions of VE felt less intrusive and appealed to their self-perceptions and idealized views of scientific work, which shaped how they conducted the funded research. This paper makes three contributions: (1) it reaffirms that how researchers experience grant conditions affects whether a scheme affords what it intends, (2) it highlights that the affordances of research funding are relative to other concurrent funding options, and (3) it shows that small, more broadly allocatable grants can afford scientists a protected space for autonomous research, usually associated with elusive tenure positions or European Research Council (ERC) grants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to improve the Regional Innovation Scoreboard as an instrument for policy-making. Dynamic slack–based models of data envelopment analysis to measure innovation output efficiency in 207 European regions demonstrate that the scale-based performance classification of the Scoreboard into 'leader', 'strong', 'moderate', and 'modest' innovator regions inadequately reflects differences in efficiency in transforming knowledge inputs into innovation outputs. We reveal a non-monotonic relation between scale-based and efficiency-based performance and substantial heterogeneity among the reasons for inefficiency among regions within each of the four scale-based performance classes of regions. Our findings argue for an extension of the current scale-based use of the Scoreboard by adding an efficiency-based measurement of the innovation process. Doing so addresses the tendency in policy design towards an increased focus on the efficient use of scarce resources in place-based policy approaches and strengthens the application of the Scoreboard as an informative decision-making tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The homegrown strategy (i.e. supporting domestic enterprises) in the high-tech manufacturing sector is very important for developing countries' sustainable growth and economic security. In reality, only some local governments adopt the homegrown strategy in high-tech industries while others not. This paper attempts to explore factors affecting local governments' adoption of the homegrown strategy in the high-tech sector. It argues that under the decentralized fiscal system and relative performance–based cadre evaluation system, local development strategy choices in a high-tech industry are significantly shaped by two factors: (1) the size of the local high-tech product market in the early stage of this industry's development and (2) the support for domestic enterprises from the central government. Localities with a large local high-tech product market and support from the center are more likely to adopt the homegrown strategy. Case studies on eight Chinese sub-provincial localities' chipmaking industries confirm these hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese governments at all levels have been using various policies to encourage innovation by firms. However, few studies considered the superimposed effects of multilevel innovation policies. Based on the panel data of 443 Chinese innovation–oriented firms from 2008 to 2011, this study investigates the complementarities between national and local science and technology programmes. The heterogeneous effects across stages of the innovation process are also considered. Results show that the national science and technology (S&T) programmes significantly increase firms' external research and development (R&D) expenditure but inhibit the commercialisation. In addition, the national and local S&T programmes complement each other in promoting external R&D expenditure while presenting substitutive in increasing patent outputs. This paper further finds that national and local programmes are more likely to be complementary at high subsidy intensity. This study contributes to the development of policy mix theory and has manifold implications for designing pertinent innovation policy systems [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While societies are facing complex problems involving multiple stakeholders and interdependencies, interest in collaborative governance as a potential solution is rising. Research-based interventions in policy, planning, and management processes have been introduced to test different approaches and tools for collaboration. The nature of these processes, tools, and approaches varies substantially, as do researchers' cultures of making contributions to and in collaboration with society. This paper outlines the various possibilities and means for researchers to intervene in and explore steps towards collaborative governance. It utilises literature-based descriptions of potential roles for researchers and draws on insight from Finnish collaborative governance interventions in environmental decision-making. The conventional role of researchers as providers of knowledge was complemented with roles needed to foster favourable conditions for collaboration. Tensions regarding these roles show that collaborative governance requires a reflexive position from researchers, enabling them to adapt their ideas about collaboration to specific governance settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Funding agencies (FAs) have increasingly engaged in international cooperation agreements (ICAs) to encourage world-class research and achieve more promising outcomes in the context of increasing competition for research resources. While the benefits of International Research Collaboration are largely supported by literature, less attention was paid to the influence of ICA on scientific and technological outputs. We employed a quasi-experimental evaluation with a comparison between funding for international collaboration carried under ICA (treatment) and funding for international collaboration not carried under ICA (control). The sample was collected from the database of the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) between 1990 and 2018. We have found that ICA has a positive and significant impact on the quality of scientific production measured by the number of citations, h-index, and the number of national and international papers co-authorship. However, no significant difference was found in terms of scholarly and technological outputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the accumulation of financial resources in higher education. Its focus lies on the Quality Pact for Teaching (QPT) , a large-scale funding programme that aimed to improve the quality of tertiary education in Germany. Starting in 2011, the QPT allocated almost 2 billion euros over a 10-year period. Yet, unlike prior national funding schemes, the QPT was strongly inspired by New Public Management measures and marked the first time that a substantial amount of teaching grants was awarded in a competitive manner. My estimations show that institutions with a successful history of acquiring third-party funds coped best under these novel circumstances, thus revealing a clear pattern of cumulative advantage. Although typically dedicated to research purposes, the level of previous third-party funding emerges as a strong predictor of QPT success. Therefore, it appears that the QPT unintentionally contributed to steeper financial gaps in Germany's academic landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shifting political interests of government officials stemming from the Provincial Party Congress (PPC) affects the efficiency of urban innovation. In this paper, intra-city collaborative innovation efficiency (CIE) and inter-city CIE were both analyzed. The intra-city CIE among 285 Chinese cities from 2004 to 2018 was estimated using network data envelopment analysis model, with a gravity model utilized to measure inter-city CIE. Based on a fixed-effect model, the relationship between estimated change in CIE and political cycle is revealed from the perspective of PPC. The study finds that across all cities, (1) cyclical fluctuations in CIE synchronize with the timing of PPC. The inter-city CIE is more sensitive to political cycles than that of intra-city. (2) The turnover effect of PPC cannot be equated with leadership transition alone at non-PPC years. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis identified differential effects of features of government officials and cities on political cycles of urban CIE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bold idea of random grant allocation is heatedly discussed as an alternative to peer review. The debate centers on advantages and disadvantages of the established measures to control scientific quality, compared to funding by chance. Recently, studies also investigated acceptance of lotteries in the scientific field. However, they provide only inconclusive findings due to their restricted scope. This paper examines scientists' views on current funding conditions and the idea of random grant distribution. An online survey of PhD holders reveals that most participants are against pure randomness, although they would try random elements if such procedures were combined with peer review. Moreover, while fewer established and recognized scientists differ in their assessments of peer review and expectancies on lotteries' impact, they hardly vary in their positions on random elements. Funding organizations therefore should be encouraged to further experiment with, and closely examine, practiced lotteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academics have different motivations for external engagement, including to acquire external resources for research (research advancement motivation), to contribute to society (prosocial motivation), or to acquire monetary benefits (pecuniary motivation). Universities also have varying policies for rewarding external engagement. This paper examines the relationship between academics' motivations for engaging, their perceptions of the fairness of their universities' policies, and their actual level of external engagement. Most academics consider contributing to the betterment of society as the most important reason for engagement, followed by the advancement of their research. Conversely, few academics consider obtaining personal income to be important. The perceived importance of all three motivations is positively associated with actual engagement behavior. Notably, the strength of research advancement motivation is more closely associated with external engagement than the strength of pecuniary motivation. However, perceptions of organizational fairness are not related to external engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between research and development (R&D) investment and economic development is well established. Yet, at a global scale, the resource-rich countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council are consistent outliers in this relationship, combining rich-world national incomes with R&D expenditure of developing countries. This paper uses a case study on Kuwait to illustrate a particular form of developmental trap, a version of the resource curse, which makes it irrational for private business firms to invest in R&D and innovation. Based on an analysis of the literature and secondary data, focus groups, and an original survey of large manufacturing firms, we argue that a narrow focus on R&D-led diversification of economic activity ignores the systemic problems faced by Kuwait and, particularly, the unsuitable supply of skills and capabilities provided by the national education and training system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The entrepreneurial and innovative activities that universities perform in addition to teaching and research have been aligned to an Innovation Systems Policy framework, which has been the dominant paradigm of innovation policy for several decades. However, Innovation Policy is being reframed in response to the growing recognition that inequality, poverty, climate change, and environmental challenges persist and are deepening despite substantial public investment in science and technology and the growth of university outreach activities associated with the entrepreneurial Third Mission vision. This paper outlines an alternative Transformative Innovation Policy agenda that unpacks the role of Universities in social change. This conceptual framework is operationalised through a description of the research practices that would underpin a Transformative Innovation Policy mission for Universities in addressing major social changes associated with obesity, decarbonisation of transport, ocean plastics, and pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the resources of the Line of Business (LB) Program of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) leveraged academic research to develop understanding of science and technology policy and to point to new directions for both research and policy. The paper provides an overview and discussion of the birth and death of the FTC LB Program and its unique LB data, the innovation research using the LB data, and the legacy of the program. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The concept of responsible research and innovation (RRI) is increasingly used to describe novel ways of governing research and the relationship between key research stakeholders including researchers, industry, policy-makers and civil society. It is thus of key importance for science, research and innovation policy. This paper defines RRI as a higher-level responsibility or meta-responsibility that aims to shape, maintain, develop, coordinate and align existing and novel research and innovation-related processes, actors and responsibilities with a view to ensuring desirable and acceptable research outcomes. It shows the role privacy has in the developing framework of RRI. The paper discusses dimensions of RRI as well as weaknesses of the current approach towards RRI and provides future directions for research and practice that will allow RRI to live up to its promise and ensure that past and present work on privacy and data protection find an appropriate place within this framework. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The analytical point of departure in this paper is the ongoing debate, initiated by Ulrich Beck, on methodological nationalism within the social sciences. Based on a comprehensive study of research collaboration and mobility of researchers this paper discusses possible traces of methodological nationalism in comparative studies of research performance. These studies are often carried out as country comparisons with no or little focus on the growing transnationality of what is measured. However, research is a transnational activity and must be understood as such. Researchers increasingly collaborate with researchers in other countries. The national research institutions are increasingly transnationalised due to the growing mobility of researchers. Based on an examination of all the papers registered in the Thompson Reuter's Web of Science database we follow the development in research collaboration in the period 1980-2014 for 17 leading research countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using patent-based indicators, this paper aims to explain the extent to which the production of innovation is globalized. First, it provides evidence--over time, across countries and across industrial sectors--on the patterns in international technological collaboration and in cross-border ownership of innovation. Second, a fractional logit model is estimated for a unique panel dataset covering patent information for 21 industries in 29 countries in the period 1980-2005. The results show that countries tend to be more globalized in industrial sectors in which they are less technologically specialized. It suggests that globalization of innovation is a means of acquiring competences abroad that are lacking at home, rather than a way to exploit home technological strengths. The empirical findings also indicate that the intensity of globalization of innovation is higher in multidisciplinary country-industry pairs and in those which compete internationally in trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engaging in collaborative networks can be an important facilitator of innovation for public sector science and technology (S&T) organizations. It is also an important component of S&T policies that require indicators that can assess the networks through which these organizations innovate. In this study, we apply network indicators to two S&T organizations that are part of the Brazilian public health sector. The indicators cover two complementary perspectives: one that considers the organizations' scientific networks and the other that considers their technological networks. The indicators allowed the analysis of the networks in which the organizations were engaged and the understanding of important aspects of their collaboration patterns that can support strategic decisions. The method employed in this paper proved to be a valuable diagnostic tool and a useful mechanism for evaluating the performance and supporting the development of S&T institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The supercluster is a new initiative promoted by the Canadian federal government to strengthen Canada's most promising clusters and allow innovative firms to operate more productively in sourcing inputs and accessing information, knowledge, and technology. This paper contributes to the scientific research on superclusters and pursues two objectives. First, we discuss the origins of the supercluster initiative and trace its roots back to major research traditions on regional agglomerations and territorial innovation models, in particular the cluster theory, the regional innovation system, and the entrepreneurial ecosystem approaches. Second, we conduct a critical analysis and identify four critical questions (or challenges) that need to be addressed to clarify the scope and objectives of the policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been a global disaster, with over 746,312 confirmed cases and still counting in Indonesia, especially Jakarta, which has about 50 per cent asymptomatic confirmed cases. This paper aims to investigate the persistent factors of COVID-19 diagnosis using four scenarios of asymptomatic inclusion. We use Bayesian Logistic Regression to identify the factors of COVID-19 positivity, which can address issues in the traditional approach such as overfitting and uncertainty. This study discovers three main findings: (1) COVID-19 can infect people regardless of age; (2) Among twelve symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19), five symptoms increase the COVID-19 likelihood, and two symptoms decrease the possibility of COVID-19 infection; and (3) From an epidemiological perspective, the contact history rises the probability of COVID-19, while healthcare workers and people who did travel are less likely to become infected from COVID-19. Therefore given this study, it is essential to be attentive to the people who have the symptoms and contact history. Surprisingly, health care workers and travelers who apply health protocols strictly according to the rules have a low risk of COVID19 infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of the Maker Movement brings along promises of extended citizen participation to science and innovation. In this paper, we investigate policy expectations about the Maker Movement and contrast them with views about science and society prevailing within communities of the movement itself. The analysis is based on a study of European Union policy documents and interviews with experts and practitioners of the Maker Movement. We obtain a self-portrait of the Maker Movement characterized by a set of aspirations, values, and motivations about the science–society relationship that deviate from of policy expectations. We conclude that, the Maker Movement, apart from being a target of policy hopes of increased citizen participation in science and innovation, can also be characterized as a source bed of criticism of mainstream science and innovation. The tension between policy expectations and community criticisms provides lessons for both sides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special section analyses the practices and the performativity of intermediaries. Rather than conceiving intermediaries as agents that passively transfer knowledge and objects between the worlds of science, policy and the economy, the focus is on how they mobilise, reframe and structure expertise and policy imperatives. The papers demonstrate that intermediaries come to: collectively explore new worlds and ventures; perform, define and constitute new scientific fields; and actively constitute logics such as scientification or forecasting in the development of techno-logical regulation. In this way, the papers that comprise this special section contribute to a performative understanding of the practices engaged in intermediation that extend and challenge documentary and ideographic modes of analysis that dominate current scholarhip. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural innovation is a process that takes a multitude of different forms, and, within this process, agricultural research and expertise are mobilised at different points in time for different purposes. This paper uses two key analytical principles to establish how research is actually put into use. The first, which concerns the configurations of organisations and their relationships associated with innovation, reveals the additional set of resources and expertise that research needs to be married to, and sheds light on the types of arrangements that allow this marriage to take place. The second, which concerns understanding innovation as a path-dependent, contextually shaped trajectory unfolding over time, reveals the changing role of research during the course of events associated with the development and diffusion of products, services and institutional innovations. This paper examines the efforts of the Research Into Use programme funded by the UK Department for International Development that sought to explore the agricultural research-into-use question empirically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reward system in academic science has changed rapidly in recent years, as many universities especially in Asia and Europe implemented new incentive systems based on research performance. To understand the relationship between inequality in science and the performance-based incentives, this study examined the influence of incentives for publications on not only research performance, but also the distribution of research performance in a Korean university. The findings of this study suggest that using a carefully designed performance incentive system, research organizations may reduce inequality in scientists' research performance while increasing their overall performance. The reduced inequality was due mainly to lower ranking researchers improving their publication performance. Meanwhile, top-ranked researchers responded only to incentives for the quality of publications. We interpret the change in research performance as an outcome of complicated interactions among the structure of incentive systems, scientists' diverse motivations, and their position in the stratification in science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy-makers have become increasingly aware that corporate R&D and innovation are the main drivers of an economy's competitiveness and growth. The widespread adoption of R&D targets has led researchers and analysts to pursue a deeper understanding of corporate R&D investment trends, drivers and impacts. This paper focuses on the main differences between the EU and the US in corporate R&D performance, and has three objectives: to review the literature on this subject, to introduce the papers in this special issue, and to discuss the possible implications for policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can a developing country narrow its science and innovation gap with leading countries? The Knowledge Innovation Program (KIP) in the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is a giant program for this purpose in China. This article investigates the scientific input and output of CAS since KIP started to be implemented ten years ago. Based on quantitative analysis, we can conclude from the results that KIP is a powerful policy tool for CAS to recruit talent, restructure CAS institutes, extend the researcher pool and introduce merit-based criteria. This has led CAS to narrow the science gap with leading countries; however, the innovation gap has still not been narrowed much. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates interactions between firms and universities in Minas Gerais, one of the Brazilian states. The heterogeneity in Minas Gerais replicates the heterogeneity that exists in Brazil as a whole. This paper adapts the pioneering Yale and Carnegie Mellon surveys (USA) to an immature national system of innovation. We found that, in immature systems of innovation, beyond their traditional functions, universities perform a dual role in their interactions with firms: they substitute for and complement the research and development done by the firms themselves. In addition, contrary to conventional wisdom, even in the so-called low-tech and medium-tech sectors, universities matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anticipatory knowledge is a rich and multifaceted object of investigation by virtue of the epistemic difficulties associated with ensuring its reliability, the blend of descriptive and performative dimensions contained within it, and its complex and often ambiguous temporality. This paper draws attention to the particular importance of anticipatory knowledge within the context of the state, where actors employ this kind of knowledge for, among other things, mobilizing support for policy initiatives and grounding decision-making. We argue that the way states produce and use anticipatory knowledge matters, and deserves sustained analytical attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers detailed evidence of the weak performance of European science in the upper tail of scientific quality, in fast moving scientific fields, and in new fields that follow a proliferation pattern of growth, or divergent search regime. The relatively poor performance is offered as a better explanation than the European paradox for current difficulties in high technology industries and trade. The paper calls for a shift of attention, from the level of science policy to the dynamic comparative analysis of deep institutional features of scientific systems, offering a number of provocative statements on scientific institutions in European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizen deliberations cannot be entirely isolated from their wider social, political and cultural context. The fact that particular deliberative mechanisms are based on sound theories does not mean that they will necessarily produce sound results in specific instances. Similarly, the fact that such mechanisms have been found to work well in practice in one social environment does not mean they will necessarily work equally well in another. Using a recent deliberation initiative in Japan, this paper addresses this important issue. It explores how the process of the Japanese consensus conference on genetically modified crops in 2000 was influenced by Japan's sociopolitical environment and how its outcomes challenged the established understanding of the policymaking process. The paper argues that the transfer of a particular policy process from one culture to another can result in a conflict of values between the process and its new social environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses promissory discourse for genome editing and human health in the UK, attending to the articulation of public goods and their beneficiary publics. Focusing on promissory reasoning about an emerging technology field as anticipatory and ethical considerations as integral to such debates, the notion of ethical regime as a mode of governance is applied to the concept of promissory regime. By analyzing key documents and interviews with opinion leaders—thus focusing on the discursive dimension—an enabling promissory ethical regime for genome editing and its contestation are identified. This regime posits scientific knowledge production now, and improved treatment or prevention of hereditary diseases later, as key goods of genome editing for human health and as a sociotechnical project worthy of support. Specific publics are created as beneficiaries. These publics and goods play out as ethical rationales for the promissory governance of the emerging field of human genome editing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The investment and excitement surrounding self-driving vehicles are huge. We know from earlier transport innovations that technological transitions can reshape lives, livelihoods, and places in profound ways. There is therefore a case for wide democratic debate, but how should this take place? In this paper, we explore the tensions between democratic experiments and technological ones with a focus on policy for nascent self-driving/automated vehicles. We describe a dominant model of public engagement that imagines increased public awareness leading to acceptance and then adoption of the technology. We explore the flaws in this model, particularly in how it treats members of the public as users rather than citizens and the presumption that the technology is well-defined. Analysing two large public dialogue exercises in which we were involved, our conclusion is that public dialogue can contribute to shifting established ideas about both technologies and the public, but that this reframing demands openness on the part of policymakers and other stakeholders. Rather than seeing public dialogues as individual exercises, it would be better to evaluate the governance of emerging technologies in terms of whether it takes place 'in dialogue'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike other developed countries, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) discourse has become the central element within technology governance in Korea. This paper examines the reasons for the discourse's success and its political and social implications. Based on the analysis of policy documents and the media coverage, I argue that political and economic elites have actively introduced the 4IR discourse to create novel momentum for promoting Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and to justify deregulatory measures while re-enacting the developmentalist imaginary. I also highlight that the 4IR discourse's promoters have drawn upon the dialectics between the desirable future and the nation's shared fear to urge the Korean society to accept the measures privileging the industry as the means of making the nation a developed country and avoiding being colonized again. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As societies become increasingly digitalized, the requirements for inclusion continuously increase. In a Swedish public, municipal, library context, it is common that individuals who face difficulties related to digital technologies come and ask for help. In this paper, we explore care in relations constituted by individuals and digital technologies and analyze how care matters for digital inclusion. It builds on field studies in a Swedish library context and includes qualitative interviews, focus groups, and observations of employees working to support individuals with digital needs. In order to analyze the material, we apply the concept of care. In the concluding discussion, we argue first for viewing individuals as sociomaterial entanglements of relations constituted by humans and non-humans, second that these sociomaterial entangled relations are vulnerable, shifting, and fluid, rather than stable, and third that these relations are in constant need of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the economic impact potential of a major innovative effort by the US Government to systematically coordinate, implement, and manage a technical infrastructure to support innovation and subsequent market penetration of advanced material technologies. Called the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI), this high-tech infrastructure consists of a range of policy instruments that can be used to leverage the efficiency of both research and development and production. To determine and rank the potential economic impacts of various MGI infrastructure targets and thereby provide policy input for portfolio management, surveys were conducted to obtain industry estimates of materials infrastructure needs. From these surveys, the economic benefits of implementing the MGI were calculated. The analysis projects potential economic benefits from an improved materials innovation infrastructure of between $123 billion and $270 billion per year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many governments in Europe and beyond have subscribed to mission-oriented innovation policies (MOIPs), aiming to steer innovation systems to directly address grand societal challenges. The emerging diversity of MOIPs, however, creates difficulties to define this approach and assess its effectiveness and efficiency. In this paper, we propose a new typology for MOIPs. It consists of four ideal types of missions and extends the established dichotomy of transformer and accelerator missions. The framework emphasizes the role of the state in MOIPs, drawing attention to the implementation process and governance requirements as key features of mission implementation. A first application across the diverse missions of the German Hightech Strategy 2025 demonstrates the analytical value of the framework and allows identifying type-specific challenges. In sum, the new typology and its operationalization improve the understanding of MOIPs and enhance the possibilities for systematic comparisons and impact assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public funding agencies aim to fund novel breakthrough research to promote the radical scientific discoveries of tomorrow. Identifying the profiles of scientists being financed to pursue their research is therefore crucial. This paper shows that the funding process is not always awarding the most novel scientists. Exploiting rich data on all applications to a leading Swiss research funding program, we find that novel scientists have a higher probability of applying for funds than non-novel scientists, but they get on average lower ratings by grant evaluators and have fewer chances of being funded. We discuss the implications for the allocation of scientific research spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much previous research has explored university-industry technology transfer, but few researchers have examined the more comprehensive technology transfer process from faculty to firm. This paper focuses on faculty's decisions on invention disclosure and selection of the mode of com- mercialization, and it aims to fill this gap through developing game models involving faculty, university, and firm. The results reveal a series of specific conditions for each commercialization mode, indicating that faculty's share of licensing revenue and non-economic benefit have a positive impact on invention disclosure and the amount of effort expended by faculty, while increasing licensing price, decreasing the invention disclosure rate, and not necessarily increasing the investment by the firm. The empirical evidence supports our theory and renders a practical interpretation in the context of the 35 Chinese universities with the most patent applications. Finally, this paper provides new insights for faculty, university, and firm, as well as implications for policy-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extant literature on cluster development focuses largely on 'clusters' where businesses are co-located along a supply chain to facilitate territorial concentration of a certain economic activity. This paper presents an inverse model of 'cluster development' strategy pioneered by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. This model is coined as the 'surrogate mother' whereby the seeds for a new industry are initially planned in more 'fertile' offshore locations, with the intention of transferring knowledge and 'spill-back' home at a later phase. The paper introduces the case of Abu Dhabi as an experiment in cluster development and provides an early examination of experience to date in the light of the cluster life-cycle framework. We find that while this model remains an experiment- in-progress, it serves as a good source of learning for other resource-abundant economies seeking industrial renewal and/or greater economic diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the historical development of innovation systems related to biogas and improved cooking stove technologies in Rwanda and Kenya by applying the 'functions approach'. It argues that the accumulation of functions in these four renewable energy technological innovation systems (TISs) differed substantially. We find that the accumulation of TIS functions at early stages of development is determined more by national and international contextual factors than by specificities related to technologies or internal dynamics (interaction of functions). Further examination of the functional patterns of TISs suggests that differences in the accumulation rates of functions explain the differences in diffusion rates, with broader and more balanced TIS functional accumulation being related to higher diffusion rates. The paper concludes that systematic support, including well-directed international development assistance, would enable the development of mature and balanced TISs that nurture the diffusion of renewable energy technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper displays a list of the typical activities that academics involved in Iranian science and technology policy undertake in a day. Since the research and its environment is embedded in the society and interacts strongly with policy-makers, and is not in some isolated laboratories, this paper communicates information about the social, political and scientific conditions in that country. There are many detailed rules and regulations governing academic life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experts play important roles in global biotech governance. In serving their roles, they are often selected based on their expertise rather than the representativeness of social diversity. However, current biotechnology development generates many value-laden issues. This led us to ask what may affect experts' attitudes towards such issues, besides expertise. In this paper, we explored experts' attitudes towards human genetic data governance—a value-laden global challenge. Thirty-two experts from 12 countries were interviewed regarding their attitudes towards the commercialization of, global sharing of, and personal privacy protection in acquiring and using human genetic data. By analysing the interview transcripts with thematic analysis, we found that experts differ in their attitudes, and organizational affiliation and national regulatory context influence their attitudes. The results call for rethinking the role of epistemic community and facilitating inclusive participation of experts from various socioeconomic backgrounds in addressing global challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]