A quantitative, multi-national and multi-stakeholder assessment of barriers to the adoption of cell therapies

Cellular therapies, such as stem cell–based treatments, have been widely researched and numerous products and treatments have been developed. Despite this, there has been relatively limited use of these technologies in the healthcare sector. This study sought to investigate the perceived barriers to this more widespread adoption. An anonymous online questionnaire was developed, based on the findings of a pilot study. This was distributed to an audience of clinicians, researchers and commercial experts in 13 countries. The results were analysed for all respondents, and also sub-grouped by geographical region, and by profession of respondents. The results of the study showed that the most significant barrier was manufacturing, with other factors such as efficacy, regulation and cost-effectiveness being identified by the different groups. This study further demonstrates the need for these important issues to be addressed during the development of cellular therapies to enable more widespread adoption of these treatments

Smoke, mirrors and poverty: communication, biotechnological innovation and development

Communication is essential to making biotechnology and genomics relevant to developing countries and poor people. Few would disagree with that. But many are sceptical about public relations efforts to impose inappropriate technological ‘solutions’ on developing countries. This paper is a partial reflection on how PR and advocacy ‘mixes’ can be understood and whether they can be useful to innovation in developing country contexts. This paper has several aims: First to consider why communication has become more important in the area of innovation and development; Second, we look at how two biotechnology related public-private partnerships have used public relations and advocacy to further innovation in development and pose some questions about complicated aspects of communication, technological innovation and development. We suggest that it is increasingly difficult to classify communication efforts associated with technology for development initiatives as PR or advocacy or according to the preconceived notions about who the messenger might be; Third we look at some of the methodological and theoretical implications of the analysis. Discourse analysis, which encourages us to unwrap layers of meaning in the text but which often treats texts in the abstract, unrelated to broader institutional developments or to ‘evidence’ of any kind, is of limited help in achieving a more grounded analysis of communication efforts. Communication and voice are essential ‘capabilities’ in development and we suggest that we need a more sophisticated approach to thinking about communication capabilities as technical, and social and political

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI): is it getting new science and technology to the world's neglected majority?

Product based public-private partnerships (PPPs), of which the International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) is one, are being developed to try and bridge the gap between scientific and technological potential and the needs of developing countries. First, this paper examines PPP's popularity. Second, we describe key characteristics of IAVI and explain why it differs from more traditional partnerships. Third, IAVI has had some success in bringing new science and technology closer to the world's poor and we look at how it has achieved this success and implications for theoretical and practical approaches to science and technology capacity building

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI): is it getting new science and technology to the world's neglected majority?

Product based public-private partnerships (PPPs), of which the International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) is one, are being developed to try and bridge the gap between scientific and technological potential and the needs of developing countries. First, this paper examines PPP's popularity. Second, we describe key characteristics of IAVI and explain why it differs from more traditional partnerships. Third, IAVI has had some success in bringing new science and technology closer to the world's poor and we look at how it has achieved this success and implications for theoretical and practical approaches to science and technology capacity building

Building Evidence about Indigenous Pathways and Transitions into Higher Education

This project centred on a Forum incorporating keynote addresses, working groups, poster presentations, workshops and yarning circles to develop a national evidence base about new and emerging approaches and strategies for promoting Indigenous pathways and transitions into higher education in Australia. Outputs included the publication of a book of papers launched at the Forum and a special issue of Learning Communities: International Journal of Learning In Social Contexts.</em

Participation, communication and innovation: thinking about the international AIDS vaccine initiative

This article is an attempt to think about participation not as an event but rather as part of an effort to build systems and institutions in science, technology and innovation in developing countries. It uses two notions of participation, one as a mechanism to facilitate democracy and broader control and another as a means to achieve development goals. The article looks at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and in particular considers the way in which more grassroots participation is linked to communications strategy in the IAVI's case. It argues that examining the extent to which participation efforts are embedded in broader communication strategies may be important in distinguishing between ways in which participation is deployed an used, and it distinguishes between 'communication for participation' and 'participation for communication The article also explores Hirschman's ideas around 'exit', 'voice' and 'loyalty' and innovation systems as frameworks, which help to situate participation in the broader context of institutional development

Sustainable Development Goals with direct and indirect associations to NTDs.

Sustainable Development Goals with direct and indirect associations to NTDs.</p

SDG targets with direct and indirect associations to NTDs.

<p>SDG targets with direct and indirect associations to NTDs.</p

Data extracted from included studies.

Data extracted from included studies.</p

Shaping scientific excellence in agricultural research

Science and technology - and particularly biotechnology - is increasingly central to development agendas in Africa and elsewhere. Implicit within me centrality of science and technology lie a set of policy issues regarding how best to shape contextually appropriate, innovative and sustainable science and technological products in, with and for developing countries. The work of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is a case in point and we draw our empirical material from the evolution of two biotech bovine vaccine development programmes housed in a CG Centre. In the paper, we seek to show that broadening our understanding of scientific 'excellence' can lead to more innovative, systemic research that may produce more appropriate technological solutions. We believe this has key implications for science policy, development policy and the practice of science for development itself