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Two thirds of hydrological observation networks in developing countries are reported to be in poor or declining condition. At the same time innovation in sensor technologies and data processing are presenting opportunities for enhancing observation networks that are not being realized. The World Meteorological Organization's Global Hydrometry Support Facility, or WMO HydroHub, was launched in 2016 to transform assistance to operational water monitoring agencies around the world. If successful, the initiative will increase the amount of hydrometric data available to researchers, catchment managers and water policy makers. To those unfamiliar with UN organizations, however, the nature of such initiatives, the reasoning behind the decisions taken to establish them and the mechanisms by which they try to deliver benefits for society, can be opaque. This paper adopts a novel dialogue-style format to explore the set-up of the WMO HydroHub and build awareness amongst those who ultimately may benefit from its approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By mobilizing the socio-technical approach to innovation and semi-directive survey of 31 stakeholders, this paper analyzes the value chains that ensure the valorization of apricot pit by-products and the dynamics of their actors. Beyond the technical knowledge on the recovery of apricot by-products and their potential uses, this paper shows a multitude of strategies but also challenges that are barriers to this innovative sector development. It also highlights some of the drivers that these value chains can rely on for their further development. The results of this work show real economic opportunities that are available to operators in these sectors depending on the nature of the by-product but also the market targeted by them. It also shows that the diffusion of these innovations must be better coordinated on the market. To do so, the socio-economic and environmental interests related to the valorization of apricot pit by-products must be highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering ethics courses aim to improve students' ethical competence by developing skills such as ethical sensitivity, awareness, analysis and judgement. We present a type of virtue engineering ethics that bridges the gap between academic knowledge (in both ethics and engineering) and its application in engineering practice (particularly design). To clarify why learning about virtues can enrich students' ethical thinking and competences, we specifically consider the virtue of practical wisdom, phronesis. At the core of the paper, we put forward a theoretical argument for including phronesis in teaching ethics within innovation courses. Training this virtue will help engineering students in dealing with the various uncertainties that will emerge from their future engineering practices. With regard to implementing our proposal, we suggest to integrate practical wisdom in 'semi-technical' courses that combine theoretical in-class learning and practical design experiences. We discuss the structure, aims and assessment methods of an integrated product development course that we deem preferable to and potentially more effective than stand-alone engineering ethics classes. An engineering virtue ethics can help engineering students develop a personal reflective way of thinking about concrete courses of action in engineering practice, and may have beneficial ripple effects on their lives, society and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike many Western countries, the Chinese state has a much more active role in innovation that includes direct involvement with actors in innovation processes and the use of state capacity, money, and power to attain certain goals. With the rise of China, innovation processes that critically depend on state action, often labeled state‐led innovation, have thus received growing scholarly attention. However, only few contributions study the specific sector of new energy vehicles (NEV) and policy measures applied at the city level. This paper examines policy and planning tools used in Shenzhen, China, to assert innovation in the NEV industry, using an evaluation of documents and interviews. The paper finds that a city can play a decisive role in the implementation of innovation policy, and Chinese cities in particular make use of a broad set of innovation support measures ranging from binding quotas, public procurement, and incentives to bans and orders. The findings underline the importance of strong regulatory instruments that do not conform to the Western notion of market‐compliant policy, but nevertheless work effectively in the Chinese context. Moreover, the results highlight how successful policy support for innovation in the NEV can be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impact assessment (IA) is under pressure to respond to increasingly complex environmental challenges. This paper reflects on the future of IA and argues for a larger and more deliberate role for strategic assessment in response to the complexity and scale of problems being brought to the IA table. It also posits that the drivers for transformation in IA are likely to emerge from creative governance solutions external to IA, more so than from new IA tools, more data, or 'better' IA legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores what it takes to develop a common language and shared sense of purpose between Māori and the high-tech science sector. Robotics and automation, 3-D printing, sensors, and digital technologies are shaping New Zealand's economy in fundamental ways. If, as envisioned under New Zealand's Vision Mātauranga policy, Māori contribution to economic growth through distinctive Indigenous innovation is to be recognised and valued, then how this happens in these frontier science domains requires investigation. Findings are presented from the first phase of a longitudinal study of one National Science Challenge: Science for Technological Innovation (SfTI) -- Kia Kotahi Mai, Te Ao Pūtaiao me te Ao Hangarau. Collecting a variety of data from science, business and Māori participants, the findings suggest that while there is enabling macro policy, organisational and science team human and relational capacities require recalibrating. The authors outline a model of how this can be done through a focus on mātauranga (knowledge), tikanga (practice) and kaupapa (focus areas) and how SfTI is reshaping its organisational practice to align to this model. The research also identifies the important role of the science intermediary as crucial to this alignment within teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores what it takes to develop a common language and shared sense of purpose between Māori and the high-tech science sector. Robotics and automation, 3-D printing, sensors, and digital technologies are shaping New Zealand's economy in fundamental ways. If, as envisioned under New Zealand's Vision Mātauranga policy, Māori contribution to economic growth through distinctive Indigenous innovation is to be recognised and valued, then how this happens in these frontier science domains requires investigation. Findings are presented from the first phase of a longitudinal study of one National Science Challenge: Science for Technological Innovation (SfTI) – Kia Kotahi Mai, Te Ao Pūtaiao me te Ao Hangarau. Collecting a variety of data from science, business and Māori participants, the findings suggest that while there is enabling macro policy, organisational and science team human and relational capacities require recalibrating. The authors outline a model of how this can be done through a focus on mātauranga (knowledge), tikanga (practice) and kaupapa (focus areas) and how SfTI is reshaping its organisational practice to align to this model. The research also identifies the important role of the science intermediary as crucial to this alignment within teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the pop-up concept, a world-wide trend which has been employed in various commercial and community settings, with a particular interest in how it has been applied to literary environments, using both physical and digital resources. The report examines six Australian public libraries, investigating why and how they established a pop-up library, and reflecting on their successes, challenges and what they have learnt from the process. The paper provides a definition of pop-up libraries and outlines how to create a pop-up library for a public library service, exploring the risks, benefits and issues to consider when planning for a successful pop-up library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To promote the advancement of novel observation techniques that may lead to new sources of information to help better understand the hydrological cycle, the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) established the Measurements and Observations in the XXI century (MOXXI) Working Group in July 2013. The group comprises a growing community of tech-enthusiastic hydrologists that design and develop their own sensing systems, adopt a multi-disciplinary perspective in tackling complex observations, often use low-cost equipment intended for other applications to build innovative sensors, or perform opportunistic measurements. This paper states the objectives of the group and reviews major advances carried out by MOXXI members toward the advancement of hydrological sciences. Challenges and opportunities are outlined to provide strategic guidance for advancement of measurement, and thus discovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incorporating socio-economic considerations (SECs) into national biosafety regulations regarding genetically modified (GM) crops have opportunity costs. Australia approved the cultivation of GM canola through a science-based risk assessment in 2003, but allowed state moratoria to be instituted based on potential trade impacts over the period 2004 to 2008 and 2010 in the main canola growing states. This analysis constructs a counterfactual assessment using Canadian GM canola adoption data to create an S-Curve of adoption in Australia to measure the environmental and economic opportunity costs of Australia's SEC-based moratoria between 2004 and 2014. The environmental impacts are measured through the amount of chemical active ingredients applied during pest management, the Environmental Impact Quotient indicator, and greenhouse gas emissions. The economic impacts are measured through the variable costs of the weed control programs, yield and the contribution margin. The environmental opportunity costs from delaying the adoption of GM canola in Australia include an additional 6.5 million kilograms of active ingredients applied to canola land; a 14.3% increase in environmental impact to farmers, consumers and the ecology; 8.7 million litres of diesel fuel burned; and an additional 24.2 million kilograms of greenhouse gas (GHG) and compound emissions released. The economic opportunity costs of the SEC-based moratoria resulted in foregone output of 1.1 million metric tonnes of canola and a net economic loss to canola farmers' of AU$485.6 million. The paper provides some of the first quantified, post-adoption evidence on the opportunity cost and environmental impacts of incorporating SECs into GM crop regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge-intensive services are seen to have an increased importance for learning and innovation activity in a more knowledge-based economy. This paper compares the relevance of two complementary approaches as analytical tools in studying the exchange of knowledge-intensive services in innovation processes. The first approach focuses on the importance of expert knowledge from companies in the KIBS (knowledge-intensive business services) sector as input in innovation processes. The other approach focuses on the role of knowledge-intensive service activities (KISA) in innovation processes. The latter approach regards a wider set of players as potentially important knowledge-intensive service providers than just KIBS firms, it focuses on knowledge exchange beyond market relations, and it emphasizes the mix and match of internal and external knowledge-intensive services. This paper analyses the relevance of the two approaches by studying the use of knowledge-intensive services in two Norwegian industries dominated by different knowledge bases, that is, the aquaculture and the software industry, respectively. Empirical studies in the two industries demonstrate that the KISA approach certainly brings new elements into the investigation of the role of knowledge-intensive services in innovation activity. The approach focuses on how knowledge exchange occurs (in static or dynamic ways), and how it relates to firms' own innovation processes. However, innovation studies can also benefit from differentiating more between different types of firms, for example, firms in different phases of their life cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationalisation of agro-food chains offers agricultural sectors in developing economies prospects in profitable and competitive international markets. Market access strategies often seem to assume poverty alleviation as one of the outcomes. This paper aims to be more precise about the required conditions for linking smallscale farmers and micro and small enterprises to markets and agri-food chains from a pro-poor perspective. In particular, the increasingly strong emphasis on compliance with strict performance requirements, as a response to visible and outspoken stakeholders with a direct impact on firms—consumers, NGOs, media or public authorities—seems to work against development endeavours recognising (rural) poor as capable players. Also, technology and knowledge is out of reach for smallscale farmers, due to a lack of resources, capacity, knowledge and network linkages. This paper analyses this problematic based on empirical findings in the coffee and flower sector. Next, it builds on the bottom-of-the pyramid (BOP) approach to explore opportunities for re-engineering or reconfiguring private sector-led innovation strategies for development. It looks for socially embedded development of technology and innovative products and services enabling small-scale farmers and micro and small enterprises to comply with the performance requirements governing export-oriented agri-food chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses changes both in environmental education and in the labour market of environmental professionals, within the context of the European Union. Changes in the Netherlands are estimated using statistical data from the 1970s to the present illustrating that the life-cycle of environmental education is related directly to changes within policy-making and thus the labour market. The author contends that strict environmental policy invokes investments in pollution controls, which then trigger demands for technical specialists with environmental expertise. A few years after the investment upswing, the demand for environmental management and administrators grows and the environmental labour market is at the point of maximum expansion. After a few decades, the market becomes saturated and demand takes a downturn. The paper outlines how the education of environmental professionals follows the same cyclical pattern but with a few years of delay. Within a three-decade cycle, the educational strands decay, or they innovate to stay in tune with new issues. Options for such innovations are indicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the determinants of innovation behavior in European firms that are predominantly small and medium in size. The aim is to assess the absolute as well as the relative impact on innovation behavior of firm-specific (i.e., internal) factors on the one hand and region-specific characteristics on the other. Two hypotheses are advanced and tested. The first is that—contrary in part to some recent literature on regional and national innovation systems—firm-specific determinants of innovation are more important than either region-specific or external factors. The second hypothesis is that in high-tech regions dominated by a small number of very large firms the innovation behavior of the smaller firms is more strongly influenced by regional factors than by factors internal to the firm. Whereas the first hypothesis is confirmed by the empirical results presented here, the second is not. Because firm-level innovation determinants are of great importance in the European regions investigated in this study, we suggest that local innovation policy should focus more on the specific needs of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular regions than on improving regional conditions for innovation in general. The analysis is mainly based on data from the European Regional Innovation Survey (ERIS) and includes information from more than 8,000 interviews with manufacturing firms, service firms, and research institutions in 11 European regions. The logit analyses reported in this paper used data from some 1,800 manufacturing firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will explore ideas about challenges to qualitative research in recent years. One often hears the phrase 'cutting edge' and 'innovation' in the qualitative research tradition, and we would like to debate some of these issues. The discussion will focus on the recent challenges that qualitative researchers have faced, and in particular, on possible innovations that are emerging at the growing edge of their endeavours. Several areas of change and challenge can be identified: the integration of art and science; the development of non-traditional forms of dissemination; the collaboration of members from different disciplines the craft of qualitative research. These are emerging trends, each with a challenge for qualitative research, and they make us think about questions that we might ask to take it "out of the doldrums". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The successful management of significant organisational change, which may be manifested through innovations in technologies, products, markets, processes and organisational forms, frequently requires facilitation and expertise—not all of which is available to firms in-house. In this paper we test the hypothesis that large firms offering professional services have the competence and legitimacy necessary to assume a significant role in facilitating strategic business responses to the challenge of sustainability and thereby creating competitive advantage for their clients. A number of these firms and their existing and potential clients were surveyed to identify their current and future potential role(s) in this area. With their ability to convene multidisciplinary teams of strategic advisors, such firms appear to have some competitive strengths with respect to sustainability consulting and third-party auditing and verification. However, the scope of services offered by firms with respect to sustainable development does not always appear to be consistent with the main challenges facing their clients. Furthermore, the firms' perceptions of how they are positioned in the value chain differs from that of some of their potential clients. We conclude that this may be linked to a number of factors, not least the firms' perceived credibility and legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years society as a whole has become more aware and concerned about environmental issues, in light of increasingly stringent legislation and the more critical eyes of external stakeholders, companies have come to realise the heightened need for their actions to be seen as environmentally responsible. The innovation process provides companies with an excellent opportunity to influence the environmental impacts associated with their products. However, merely providing product developers with new processes and a toolbox of available ecodesign tools is rarely sufficient to facilitate more environmentally conscious decision-making in innovation. This paper proposes that employee participation within the development of new initiatives will aid the implementation of those initiatives. It highlights the first results from a study undertaken at Unilever seeking to initiate employee participation within initiatives for environmentally conscious innovation by ascertaining the attitudes of employees involved in the product innovation process regarding environmental responsibility and its integration into innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study of a trend-setting company in the electricity sector in the Netherlands and its innovative response to the combined influence of liberalization and climate change. The company became a first mover through its invention of the concept of green electricity and the development of a new facility for biomass combustion. The successful introduction of these innovative practices was facilitated by corresponding changes in corporate culture and strategy. These changes also enabled the company to develop new networks that bridged gaps in knowledge and gave legitimacy to enable the successful adoption of the new practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American sugar industry evolved between 1500 and t800 as planters adopted innovations in land use and in the mills, Planters were more innovative in some colonies than in others so that marked regional differences in the management of the industry emerged. The literature describes these innovations but does not explain their pattern of diffusion. This paper provides such an explanation in the form of a model in which the key variables are the net benefits of innovation, resources, and markets. The model shows that high net benefits, scarce or depleting resources, and competitive markets encouraged innovation: low net benefits, abundant resources, and competitive markets encouraged traditionalism. The model also contributes to two important debates in plantation historiography and suggests further avenues of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Interprofessional education is increasingly recognized as essential for health education worldwide. Although effective management, innovation, and entrepreneurship are necessary to improve health systems, business schools have been underrepresented in global health education. Central America needs more health professionals trained in health management and innovation to respond to health disparities, especially in rural communities. Objective:  This paper explores the impact of the Health Innovation Fellowship (HIF), a new training program for practicing health professionals offered jointly by the Central American Healthcare Initiative and INCAE Business School, Costa Rica. Launched in 2014, HIF's goal is to create a network of highly trained interdisciplinary health professionals in competencies to improve health of Central American communities through better health management. Methods: The program's fellows carried out innovative healthcare projects in their local regions. The first three annual cohorts (total of 43 fellows) represented all health-related professions and sectors (private, public, and civil society) from six Central American countries. All fellows attended four 1-week, on-site modular training sessions, received ongoing mentorship, and stayed connected through formal and informal networks and webinars through which they exchange knowledge and support each other. CAHI stakeholders supported HIF financially. Results: Impact evaluation of the three-year pilot training program is positive: fellows improved their health management skills and more than 50% of the projects found either financial or political support for their implementation. Conclusions: HIF's strengths include that both program leaders and trainees come from the Global South, and that HIF offers a platform to collaborate with partners in the Global North. By focusing on promoting innovation and management at a top business school in the region, HIF constitutes a novel capacity-building effort within global health education. HIF is a capacity-building effort that can be scaled up in the region and other low- and middle-income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]