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In a post-pandemic, digital world, collaboration between libraries and librarians is more important than ever. This essay argues that Atla members should look to the association itself as a way of working together. I proceed first by outlining the great history of the association as a collaborative space for its members, highlighting three past successes. I then apply the four causes of success from these past projects to the challenges we face in a digital age that has been disrupted by the pandemic. I explore how Atla libraries can collaborate on collection development, digitization, and information literacy instruction, and what the opportunities and limits of working together may be.

Francis Bacon podzielił nauki przyrodnicze na fizykę i metafizykę. Twierdził, że z czterech przyczyn wskazanych przez Arystotelesa tylko przyczyny materialne i sprawcze należą do dziedziny fizyki, a przyczyny celowe, czy też twierdzenia teleologiczne, zaliczyć trzeba do dziedziny metafizyki. Bacon sprzeciwiał się włączaniu teleologii do fizyki, ponieważ doświadczenie podpowiadało mu, że twierdzenia teleologiczne zniechęcają do poszukiwania przyczyn sprawczych dla zjawisk przyrodniczych. Relegował on teleologię do metafizyki, a nauka w dużej mierze poszła jego śladem, wykształcając przez kolejne czterysta lat coraz większą awersję do uwzględniania czynników teleologicznych w wyjaśnieniach naukowych. Zdaniem Bacona człowiek, z racji swojej natury, „wymyśla […] paralele, odpowiedniości i stosunki, które w rzeczywistości nie istnieją”. Jednak wraz z rozwojem nauki w zakresie odkrywania przyczyn materialnych i sprawczych, jaki zachodził od czasów Bacona, zaczęły pojawiać się paralele, odpowiedniości i stosunki bardziej zasadne niż zapewne mógłby on sobie wyobrazić. Krótko mówiąc, poszukiwanie przyczyn materialnych i sprawczych w przyrodzie przyniosło imponujące uzasadnienie również dla wnioskowania o przyczynach celowych. Wnioskowania teleologiczne powinny być dopuszczone w nauce wówczas, gdy uprawomocniają je świadectwa empiryczne. Narzędzie pozwalające ustalić, czy wnioskowanie teleologiczne jest prawomocne, stanowi analogia. Bacon mógłby pomóc nauce uniknąć stopniowego, lecz i nieuchronnego przejścia w stronę naturalizmu metodologicznego, gdyby położył nacisk na to, jak analogia, zastosowana w roli narzędzia analitycznego w procesie indukcji, prowadzi do zasadnych wniosków o istnieniu teleologii w przyrodzie.

The generality of the ‘systemic or structural view’ of parts of the world is introduced. This leads to the generality of the ‘innate’ problem solving activity of problematic issues in the living sphere associated with survival or homeostasis, achievements of ambitions by chance or purpose and maintenance of isothermal operations. The anomaly of using predominantly qualitative, quantitative properties over the history of human intellectual endeavour for the development of empirical theories in preference of ‘systemic properties’, had they been available, is asserted. One- and two- place, declarative sentences of processed natural language acting as such properties, are suggested. Consideration of the notions of achievement and ambition leads to a ‘problem solving structure’ as the integral part of the ‘New science of systems’ called the ‘Science of problem solving’ or the ‘Science of the 21st century’. Accordingly, the problematic issues can be resolved and the anomaly to disappear. Aristotle’s four causes from the historical background of thought are compared with the problem-solving structure and the problem-solving function and place of conventional science of physics at the object level is discussed leading to a ‘scientific enterprise’. Integration of ancient and modern views has emerged. An example of application of ‘linguistic modelling’ to the problem-solving structure, is given.

This paper tries to construct the philosophy of Iqbal's civilization thought by using the theory of four causes of Aristotle. It is concluded that the steps to achieve the philosophy of superior civilization are first, the actor of civilization must recognize themselves (Khudi). Achievement of Khudi means he has met with God, after that the actor of civilization must return to nature to fuse (absence) with the community, manage nature with the principles of divinity (bi-Khudi). Then civilization actors dialectic with history to determine the prototype of civilization. From the dialectical results, then it is chosen the era of the prophet who has the characteristics of civilization across regions and races, and not based on blood.

John Bogle states in his book The Battle For The Soul Of Capitalism that he will describe “how the financial system undermined social ideals, damaged trust in the markets, robbed investors of trillions – and what to do about it.”2 Bogle argues that the financial system is corrupt and there are two contributors to this corruption; the first is excessive executive compensation and the second is onset of quarterly earnings guidance. We are intrigued by Bogle’s title which talks about the soul of Capitalism. We want to exploit Bogle’s words, if not his thoughts, and talk about corruption as the very loss of soul. But we need to get clear about what is meant mean by soul. To explain what soul means, we will to make use of some concepts developed by the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Some years ago, there was a popular book entitled What If Aristotle Ran General Motors? we want to suggest a different tack, and ask, “What if Aristotle would analyze what is going on in the scandalous behavior of business in the twenty-first century?” We think his explanation, would be simple. Businesses have lost their souls. On an Aristotelian account, businesses, like human beings or any other entity, are comprised of four causes: material, formal, efficient, and final. The material cause is the stuff, the formal cause is the organization of the stuff, the efficient cause is the mover that brings the stuff together and the final cause is the purpose of the whole entity. In living beings, the material cause is obviously the organic body and the formal cause is the spirit or soul. The soul (psyche in Greek) is the dynamic force, or the animating (animus in Latin) principle. Aristotle’s work on the soul was entitled Peri Psyche in ancient Greek and De Anima in later Latin translations. In a discussion of the four causes, Aristotle indicates that at times the formal cause is identical with the final cause.3 In other words, to explain “what” a thing is sometimes involves explaining “what it is for”. In order to understand the essence or nature of something we need to determine its purpose. Indeed, in the case of physically amorphous things like social institutions, it may be that the only possible

The Historic Urban Landscape provides a basis to comprehensively study the city, considering the numerous agents and stakeholders involved in the urban phenomenon. However, the characterisation of the city is challenging, due to the numerous ways of reading and using the city. Although several theoretical approaches address the process of documenting the city, there is still a gap related to the design of a generalised, holistic, and comprehensive framework. This article aims to contribute to this purpose by discussing the concept of the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) and its implications for the characterisation of the urban phenomena. The Aristotelian theory of the causes is proposed here as a suitable approach for the description, characterisation, and analysis of virtually any entity by first discussing its theoretical basis and then testing it in a real building located in the historical city, Guimarães, Portugal. A set of tools related to Geographic Information System databases are comprehensively explored during the implementation process of the approach, allowing to identify and discuss a set of limitations, challenges, and opportunities., This research was funded by the European Union through the European Social Found and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the grant number PD/BD/150385/2019.

Climate change increasingly affects every aspect of human life. Recent studies report a close correlation with human health and it is estimated that global death rates will increase by 73 per 100,000 by 2100 due to changes in temperature. In this context, the present work aims to study the correlation between climate change and human health, on a global scale, using artificial intelligence techniques. Starting from previous studies on a smaller scale, that represent climate change and which at the same time can be linked to human health, four factors were chosen. Four causes of mortality, strongly correlated with the environment and climatic variability, were subsequently selected. Various analyses were carried out, using neural networks and machine learning to find a correlation between mortality due to certain diseases and the leading causes of climate change. Our findings suggest that anthropogenic climate change is strongly correlated with human health, some diseases are mainly related to risk factors while others require a more significant number of variables to derive a correlation. In addition, a forecast of victims related to climate change was formulated. The predicted scenario confirms that a prevalently increasing trend in climate change factors corresponds to an increase in victims.

This chapter is the third of four chapters in this volume dedicated to Grierson’s odyssey of defining documentary. My discussion begins by looking into a paradox embedded in the story behind what is arguably the canonical definition of the history of the documentary discourse. Here I refer, of course, to the omniscient triadic expression “the creative treatment of actuality.” In my discussion, I illuminate the fact that at the time Grierson published the article, he already had a corpus of 136 articles, film reviews, and speeches to his credit. My response to this lacuna is a close textual analysis of the article’s overall structure, in which at its midpoint Grierson presents a ninety-three-word paragraph containing the treasure trove “the creative treatment of actuality.” Here and onward I perform an arduous, word-by-word reading of the paragraph. Aristotle’s “function argument” and his theory of “four causes” serve, among other philosophical perspectives, as tools to unpack Grierson’s master definition and liberate it from its routine mode of (auto)reception and uninformed process of representation.

Aristotelian ideas have in the past been applied with mixed fortunes to quantum mechanics. One of the most persistent criticisms is that Aristotle’s notions of potentiality and actuality are burdened with a teleological character long ago abandoned in the natural sciences. Recently this criticism has been met with a model of the actualization of quantum potentialities in light of Aristotle’s doctrine of ‘spontaneous events’. This presumably restores the nowadays acceptable idea of efficient causation in place of Aristotle’s original doctrine of the ‘four causes’. In this article I challenge the model by arguing that when properly scrutinized Aristotle’s final cause poses no problems for an Aristotelian reading of quantum mechanics. Final causes in fact provide a better ontology for quantum mechanics than spontaneous causation. The idea of ‘spontaneity’ is unanalyzable and therefore of little use in quantum mechanics. In addition, it is ontologically sterile in the context of quantum measurement, as shown by a historical and conceptual review of the role of efficient causation in experimental physics.

The article considers one of the most significant concepts in Aristotelian philosophy: the concept of substance and its interpretation in the works of existential Thomists. The emphasis is placed on the fact that the doctrine of substance is first and foremost to be considered in the context of the identification of the subject of scientific knowledge and in the context of the way of knowing this subject. In order to illustrate the epistemological realism, which, according to Thomists, inheres in Aristotle’s philosophy the article analyzes the previous philosophers’ views on the true subject of scientific knowledge. This subject is individual being, which forms the basis of philosophical understanding of things, as a subject of scientific knowledge. It should be noted that the method of constructing of Aristotle’s science general theory is finding reasons why something is just what it is from the viewpoint of necessity. Krąpiec believes that the way Aristotle comes to the formation of the four causes is related to the specificity of the question διὰ τί (why? because of what?). This analysis through causes allows us to understand that each single entity has a composite structure. Furthermore, Aristotle considers substance as a logical and grammatical category and as a main category in the ontological sense, as the mode of the initial being of things. Therefore, categories reflect the actual structure of things, namely the way of its existence on the essential and accidental levels. The very substance itself is recognizable only through the accidents associated with it and represents itself through them. However, the substance precedes its accidents in three meanings: ontological, definitive, and epistemological.Article received 23.02.2018

I present the text at Posterior Analytics (=APo) II.11, 94b8-26, offer a tentative translation, discuss the main construals offered in the literature, and argue for my own interpretation. Some of the general questions I discuss are the following: 1. What is the nature of the explanatory syllogisms offered as examples, especially in the case of the moving and the final cause? Are they scientific demonstrative explanations? In the case of the final cause, are they practical syllogisms? Are they productive? 2. Are we to read into such examples Aristotle’s requirementsfrom APo I.4-6 that demonstrative premisses and conclusions are universal, per se, and necessary? If so, in what way? If such requirements do not apply here, what are the implications for question 1? 3. What, if any, is the advantage of one type of causal explanation over another (e.g., of final over efficient) in cases in which there is causal competition between complementary explanations? Final Cause and Demonstration 2 Manuscrito – Rev. Int. Fil. Campinas, 2019. 4. What is the relation between the thesis of this chapter, especially the section dedicated to the final cause, and the argument of II.8-10? How is essence (the what-it-is) related to causes? How is explanation/demonstration-based definition related to causal explanation in terms of the four causes?

Aristotle's typical procedure is to identify four causes of natural changes. Intentional action, a natural change, has standardly been treated as an exception: most think that Aristotle has the sta...

Relational biology relies heavily on the enriched understanding of causal entailment that Robert Rosen's formalisation of Aristotle's four causes has made possible, although to date efficient causes and the rehabilitation of final cause have been its main focus. Formal cause has been paid rather scant attention, but, as this paper demonstrates, is crucial to our understanding of many types of processes, not necessarily biological. The graph-theoretic relational diagram of a mapping has played a key role in relational biology, and the first part of the paper is devoted to developing an explicit representation of formal cause in the diagram and how it acts in combination with efficient cause to form a mapping. I then use these representations to show how Von Neumann's universal constructor can be cast into a relational diagram in a way that avoids the logical paradox that Rosen detected in his own representation of the constructor in terms of sets and mappings. One aspect that was absent from both Von Neumann's and Rosen's treatments was the necessity of a code to translate the description (the formal cause) of the automaton to be constructed into the construction process itself. A formal definition of codes in general, and organic codes in particular, allows the relational diagram to be extended so as to capture this translation of formal cause into process. The extended relational diagram is used to exemplify causal entailment in a diverse range of processes, such as enzyme action, construction of automata, communication through the Morse code, and ribosomal polypeptide synthesis through the genetic code.

The authors use American Community Survey (ACS) language data for 2009 to 2013 to map all U.S. counties where 10 percent or more of the population age five and older is estimated to speak a minority (heritage) language at home. The methodology of the ACS data estimation and the limitations of ACS language data, especially for assessing bilingualism, are reviewed. We then explain the methodology underlying our maps and discuss the geographic patterns, evolution, and sociospatial aspects of Spanish, Native North American, French, German, Asian, and Pacific Island languages, all of which are used by multiple communities in the United States. Four causes are suggested to explain those counties where heritage languages only as a group meet or exceed the 10 percent threshold (i.e., our sixth language category). The article concludes with a consideration of the benefits of bilingualism, the pressure from English that the heritage languages face, and some suggested directions for geolinguistic research of...

In this article, I interpret Book V of the Nicomachean Ethics in which Aristotle presents a geometrical problem to explain which is the Best Criterion for the Distribution of Political and Economic Rights and Duties among Citizens, starting from the empirical evidence that there are three opposing opinions on which is the fairest distribution criterion: for some it is Freedom (Democrats), for others Wealth (Oligarchs), and for others Virtue (Aristocrats). Against the almost unique and most quoted interpretation of the geometrical problem, I present my mathematical solution, which I arrived at thanks to the Doctrine of the Four Causes and the Theory of the Mean. My thesis is that the Mean Term of Distributive Justice is the Golden Ratio between the opposite criteria of distribution, and the unjust distribution is the one that violates this ratio. This solution allows us to understand what is the Rational Principle at the basis of just distribution: that is, Geometrical Equality as opposed to Arithmetical Equality. Indeed, by applying the geometric figure of the Golden Triangle to the different political constitutions, I show, in line with Politics, that the Best Form of Government is the Aristocratic Politeia, i.e., a mixture of Democracy, Oligarchy and Aristocracy.

The last six lines of Aristotle's Metaphysics A.7 draw some important conclusions about Aristotle's predecessors' (the Presocratics' and Plato's) grasp of the four types of cause. Aristotle argues that his account of his predecessors supports his conception of the four causes and his claim that in first philosophy, too, we should seek to understand our subject-matter on the basis of these four causes. I offer a detailed textual and philosophical interpretation of these lines, connect them with Aristotle's argument in Metaphysics A.1-6, and examine their metaphysical, epistemological, and methodological presuppositions.

In this chapter Aristotle’s theory of causality is discussed in details. It is demonstrated that his theory of causality is more complex and realistic than often it is realized today. Some modern misconceptions of Aristotle’s causality especially those related to his final cause and the concept of “motion” are revealed.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to extend prior research on the influence of consumer-cause identification on the intention to purchase products from the companies supporting the cause and re-evaluates the role of attitude toward the cause as a mediator of the relationship between identification and intention to purchase.Design/methodology/approachUsing a questionnaire, a sample of 156 Portuguese consumers evaluated their personal identification and attitude to one of four causes. Partial least squares path modeling was used to evaluate the proposed conceptual model.FindingsThe results reveal that more than identification, a positive attitude is vital to be able to predict the intention to purchase. Together, consumer-cause identification and attitude explain 35.1 percent of the variance in purchase intention. The findings show also that attitude acts as a mediator in the relationship between the identification with the cause and intention to purchase. Several differences regarding gender and age are also revealed.Originality/valueWhile the majority of studies were single cause evaluations, the current results are based on the assessment of multiple causes. Consequently, the findings are more comprehensive and robust, providing important insights to researchers. The conclusions confirm within a wider context the role of attitude as a mediator of the identification and intention to purchase and can further assist companies in designing better targeted cause-related marketing campaigns.

Power is a central concept in social theory and political discourse. Concepts are much used metaphors that seem to fit the world as collectively experienced, in the process losing their freshness as metaphors unless freshened by association with other metaphors. Soft power is a case in point. Power and causation are metaphors turned concepts with a long history of mutual refreshment; Aristotle’s four causes capture competing ways of talking about power. Once power became metaphorically associated with mass, weight and strength, talk shifted from agents’ powers to states as hard objects possessing comparable properties, measurable as power. Defined as attraction but explicated as attractiveness, soft power is ambiguously related to metaphors pointing up strength, preferences, competence and expertise. Thanks to functional differentiation and professionalisation, experts individually have powers and exercise power on a small scale. Collectively they have massive effects on social relations at every ...

This book refers to a ‘Re-Assessment’ of Aristotle’s economic thought. We expect therefore a new estimate of what economists consider to be the Greek philosopher’s contribution to the development o...

The philosophy of science should accommodate itself to the facts of human existence, using all aspects of human experience to adapt more effectively, as individuals, species, and global ecosystem. This has several implications: (1) Our nature as sentient beings interacting with other sentient beings requires the use of phenomenological methods to investigate consciousness. (2) Our embodied, situated, purposeful physical interactions with the world are the foundation of scientific understanding. (3) Aristotle's four causes are essential for understanding living systems and, in particular, the final cause aids understanding the role of humankind, and especially science, in the global ecosystem. (4) In order to fulfill this role well, scientists need to employ the full panoply of human faculties. These include the consciousness faculties (thinking, sensation, feeling, intuition), and therefore, as advocated by many famous scientists, we should cultivate our aesthetic sense, emotions, imagination, and intuition. Our unconscious faculties include archetypal structures common to all humans, which can guide scientific discovery. By striving to engage the whole of human nature, science will fulfill better its function for humans and the global ecosystem.

The article seeks to highlight the problem of the theological complexity of the Book of Zephaniah, that would be intriguing to the general reader, and in which the categorical divine oracle of judgment collides with a strong invitation to the messianic joy (Ze. 3:14-17). By starting from the border verse (Ze. 3:9), where the oracle of judgment rapidly turns into an oracle of salvation, the author tries to examine the internal dynamics of this theological turning point. The main purpose of this analysis is to attempt to understand the nature of the day of the Lord which, in the book of Zephaniah, turns out to be at the same time the day of judgment and the day of salvation. Based on the classic Aristotelian doctrine of the four causes, the author puts in order disparate material on the day of the Lord in the book of Zephaniah and sees in it a number of references to the Jahwistic version of the account of the sin concerning the sons of God (Gn. 6:1-4) and the flood (Gn. 6:5-8,22; 9.1-17). The article may become a contribution to the understanding of the impact of the Pentateuchal sources on the prophetic tradition.

Recently, a strong hylomorphic reading of Aristotelian emotions has been put forward, one that allegedly eliminates the problem of causal interaction between soul and body. Taking the presentation of emotions in de An. I 1 as a starting point and basic thread, but relying also on the discussion of Rh. II, I will argue that this reading only takes into account two of the four causes of emotions, and that, if all four of them are included into the picture, then a causal interaction of mind and body remains within Aristotelian emotions, independent of how strongly their hylomorphism is understood. Beyond the discussion with this recent reading, the analysis proposed of the fourfold causal structure of emotions is also intended as a hermeneutical starting point for a comprehensive analysis of particular emotions in Aristotle. Through the different causes Aristotle seems to account for many aspects of the complex phenomenon of emotion, including its physiological causes, its mental causes, and its intentional object.

A second medieval synthesis arose through Muslim transmission of Aristotelian texts. This Aristotelian synthesis maintained subsistent souls but weakened the role of participation in cosmic life. Theologians reinterpreted Aristotle’s four causes, changing souls from dynamic processes into immaterial agents with biological faculties, the ability to cause life activities. Major players included the Islamic philosophers al-Kindi, al-Fârâbi, Ibn Sinâ, and Ibn Rushd and the Jewish theologian Maimonides. They questioned the life and ensoulment of plants as well as the persistence of human individuality after death. Nonetheless the language of vegetable souls and resurrection remained common. Animal souls continued to be taken for granted, including aspects of both will and reason.

Technical artifacts had been a lost theme in philosophy for a long time until the emergence of philosophy of technology in the end of nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, Herbert Simon put forward sciences of the artificial, and Peter Kroes and Anthonie Meijers proposed a theory of the dual nature of technical artifacts. From the point of view of philosophy of technology, Aristotle’s four causes theory is an explanation on the nature of technical artifacts in essence rather than that of the natural world. However, Aristotle, Simon, Kroes and Meijers did not pay attention to technical artifacts’ life cycle, which inevitably leads to the failure of their theory of technical artifacts to some extent. The fact that technical artifacts, like living beings, are as mortal as human beings means that they also have a life cycle from birth to death. In order to interpret these phenomena, we plan to raise a theory of four factors of technical artifacts. However, this paper only aims to define the life cycle of technical artifacts as three stages, i.e. creation, vitality, and ending. And it also going to examine the creation stage and re-interpret Aristotle’s four causes theory according to the four factors theory.

Aristotle shifted the discussion from biological motivators to biological activities. His four causes formed a foundation for all explanations. “Material causes” speak to composition; “formal causes” speak to shape, but also interactions with the surrounding world; “efficient causes” speak to external and accidental influences; and “final causes” speak to “that for the sake of which” a thing occurs. When the last three coincide, they can be called a soul. Aristotle used souls to explain the biological activities: nutrition, reproduction, sensation, locomotion, and reason. Although causes, souls, and activities were reimagined in the Middle Ages, they are, in their original forms, surprisingly compatible with scientific accounts.

Considering the costs associated with accidents in construction, a model identifying root causes of accidents is proposed for construction organisations in Oman. The model classifies the accidents in construction mainly arising from main four causes: 'equipment/materials', 'workers', 'environment' and 'management'. The model is applied to a road construction project in Oman to trace the root causes of accidents. It can also be applied to construction projects in other sectors such as building or process plant construction. Further research is recommended to extend the study to other projects in the construction sector in order to generalise the findings. Although the frequency distribution of accidents is likely to vary from project to project, understanding the underlying pattern of their causes helps to pinpoint the key areas where resources should be directed in the organisations' efforts to deliver the goal of zero accidents.

Both Aristotle and Ernst Mayr present theories of dual explanation in biology, with proximal, clearly physical explanations and more distal, biology-specific explanations. Aristotle’s presentation of final cause explanations in Posterior Analytics (II.11) relates final causes to the necessary material, formal, and efficient causes that mediate them. Johnson (Aristotle on teleology, 2005) and Leunissen (Apeiron 43:117–142, 2010b) demonstrate the problematic nature of historical and recent interpretations and open the door for a new interpretation consistent with modern evolutionary theory. Mayr’s (Science 134:1501–1506, 1961) differentiation of proximate and ultimate/evolutionary causes provides a key to appropriating Aristotle for modern use, if care is taken to differentiate Mayr’s proximate/distal and mechanical/evolutionary distinctions from his intentional/non-intentional distinction. Building on Mayr, and noting his appropriation of ancient and recent commentary, a strong case can be made for nested explanation, wherein evolutionary explanations are instantiated in systems of mechanical explanations. Biological concepts of organism, gene, function, etc., are etiologically prior to mechanical explanations of function, but temporally posterior to mechanical explanations of historical adaptation. Such an analysis sheds light on recent arguments within evolutionary biology while highlighting the importance of epistemology in contemporary science.

In modern Chinese thought, “philosophy” and the whole disciplinary system rooted in it have had a far-reaching influence on the Chinese understanding and interpretation of their own tradition. If we are to avoid a naive and simplistic final interpretation of traditional thought, the most prudent and reliable way to go about it is to ponder the whole framework and realm on which this understanding is based before we proceed to understand tradition. Before the inevitable problematization of “Chinese thought,” we should try to problematize “philosophy.” This demands that we find, in the constant rise and fall of philosophical trends, the view of philosophy by which Chinese thought is generally judged, and make it the object of questioning. Mou Zongsan’s attempt to reinterpret classical Chinese thought, based directly on Aristotle’s theory of the four causes, cannot be viewed as a success. The so-called first beginning of philosophy means establishing, led by the question of being—ontology, a system in which ...

This Chapter detects the four causes behind the failure to translate discoveries into inventions: ignorance regarding market need; researchers’ lack of business knowledge and engagement with the industry; a scarcity of academic or executive profiles within a research team; and uncoachable researchers. Five hands-on mechanisms being applied to tackle those difficulties at prominent research centers are then presented: translating and mapping consumer needs through design thinking; following lean research principles by maximizing learning speed and minimizing testing costs; complementing the current services of the technology transfer office; creating diversified teams of academics (with Ph.Ds.) and executives (with MBAs); and measuring—in the recruitment, evaluation, and incentive scheme of academics—the ability to be mentored.

This chapter identifies the four causes behind the failure to select the appropriate research initiatives in early stages of the innovation process: choosing nonholistic performance metrics to decide among projects, a lack of knowledge sharing among agents of the research center, and a lack of either academic or business experience in senior roles. Then, the author examines four practical tools that leading institutions are implementing to solve those problems at research centers: prioritizing projects based on a collection of academic, economic, and social impact metrics; mapping each researcher’s focus of study through a research map and incentivizing collaborations and sharing the best practices among them; using professional recruitment for academic and executive directors; and attracting an international advisory board.