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For the first time, the UK research evaluation system, known as the Research Excellence Framework, considered 'measures' of impact in the 2014 review. Here, we focus on impact case studies that had an engineering and international development orientation. We found that writers of impact case studies commonly chose to employ an ecological modernization (economic, environmental, and social value) discourse to shape value claims. We also found that the type of engineering and international development research that appears in impact case studies tends to be high tech, best-with-best, and exclusive, rather than low tech, humanitarian, and inclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investment in biotechnology has yielded relatively disappointing results and illustrates the gap between the promise and reality of new science. This begs the question: Does research on 'life' bring different complexities and uncertainties that act as a barrier to the application of new biology in global health and agriculture? There has been high-quality research on the social and ethical impacts of new biology and on the economics of biotechnology but few systematic and integrated attempts to undertake interdisciplinary research and address these constraints. This paper provides an original empirical analysis of contemporary and future understandings of the bioeconomy using a co-evolutionary and interactive approach to examine the extent to which it may be different from other technological transformations. We focus on the Innogen Centre's extensive research results on three important and contemporary themes: food and energy security, life science and healthcare translational medicine, and global health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of how to build science and technology (S&T) capacity in Africa has been on and off the agenda for decades, as has the issue of how to use partnerships to accelerate capacity building. Recent policy proposals have focused on expanding S&T capacity but have emphasized less the need for a rigorous rethink about how science, technology and innovation can be better organized for development. This paper aims to assess, using evidence from recent cases, the importance of new theories and practices based on the role of innovation and knowledge systems. The paper argues that lessons can be learned from transformations in research policy and from practices that better integrate new ideas from innovation, knowledge and development. It focuses on the changes required for science, technology and innovation to be accepted as key for the alleviation of poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article ‘Mozambique's’ Presidential Offensive — We are declaring war on the enemy within (Peoples’ Power,No. 16, 1980) Richard Williams made an interpretation of the organisational and political offensive launched at the beginning of 1980 in Mozambique. The main aim of the article was to argue against the simplistic views prevalent in the British press at that time that Mozambique was lurching to the right. Marcelino dos Santos and Jorge Rebello had been moved from their ministerial positions to full‐time party work. This has been described as demotion following the defeat of an imagined left‐wing faction. The country's attempts to attract foreign investments and the encouragement of local private traders was said to indicate a return to ‘the capitalist road’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Examines the material composition of generic technology of revolutionary significance. Changes in materials science and technology; Corporate and public policy on material innovation; Factors attributing to the impact of material technology on industrial operation.

The article comments on the progress of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals in eradicating poverty and hunger through crop biotechnology partnership in sub-Saharan Africa. This is one of the eight goals set by the organization with the specific target of alleviating poverty by 50 percent between 1990 and 2015. Reports and analyses conducted showed that food production is way behind its population growth due to poor governance, poverty, plant diseases and calamities.