4,005 research outputs found

    Designing Institutional Infrastructure for E-Science

    Get PDF
    A new generation of information and communication infrastructures, including advanced Internet computing and Grid technologies, promises more direct and shared access to more widely distributed computing resources than was previously possible. Scientific and technological collaboration, consequently, is more and more dependent upon access to, and sharing of digital research data. Thus, the U.S. NSF Directorate committed in 2005 to a major research funding initiative, “Cyberinfrastructure Vision for 21st Century Discovery”. These investments are aimed at enhancement of computer and network technologies, and the training of researchers. Animated by much the same view, the UK e-Science Core Programme has preceded the NSF effort in funding development of an array of open standard middleware platforms, intended to support Grid enabled science and engineering research. This proceeds from the sceptical view that engineering breakthroughs alone will not be enough to achieve the outcomes envisaged. Success in realizing the potential of e-Science—through the collaborative activities supported by the "cyberinfrastructure," if it is to be achieved, will be the result of a nexus of interrelated social, legal, and technical transformations.e-science, cyberinfrastructure, information sharing, research

    Knowledge Management As an Economic Development Strategy

    Get PDF
    The United States is shifting to an information economy. Productive capability is no longer completely dependent on capital and equipment; information and knowledge assets are increasingly important. The result is a new challenge to the practice of local economic development. In this information economy, success comes from harnessing the information and knowledge assets of a community and from helping local businesses succeed in the new environment. Knowledge Management (KM) can provide the tools to help economic development practitioners accomplish that task. KM is a set of techniques and tools to uncover and utilize information and knowledge assets -- especially tacit knowledge. Economic development organizations can use KM tools to enhance external communications of local companies including marketing and to promote internal communications within local businesses and help companies capture tacit knowledge. More importantly, they can use those tools to uncover and develop local intellectual assets, including helping develop information products, and helping identify entrepreneurial and business opportunities. KM tools are also useful in developing local economic clusters. Finally, these tools can be used to enhance external knowledge sharing among the economic development community and to capture and share tacit knowledge within an economic development organization

    Koyaanisqatsi in Cyberspace

    Get PDF
    Koyaanisqatsi is a Hopi Indian word that translates into English as 'life out of balance,' 'crazy life,' 'life in turmoil,' 'life disintegrating,' all meanings consistent with indicating 'a way of life which calls for another way of living.” While not wishing to suggest either that the international regime of intellectual property rights protection scientific and technical data and information is “crazy” or that it is “in turmoil”, this paper argues that the persisting drift of institutional change towards towards a stronger, more extensive and globally harmonized system of intellectual property protections during the past two decades has dangerously altered the balance between private rights and the public domain in data and information. In this regard we have embarked upon “a way of life which calls for another way of living.” High access charges imposed by holders of monopoly rights in intellectual property have overall consequences for the conduct of science that are particularly damaging to programs of exploratory research which are recognized to be critical for the sustained growth of knowledge-driven economies. Lack of restraint in privatizing the public domain in data and information has effects similar to those of non- cooperative behaviors among researchers in regard to the sharing of access to raw data-steams and information, or the systematic under- provision the documentation and annotation required to create reliably accurate and up-to-date public database resources. Both can significantly degrade the effectiveness of the research system as a whole. The urgency of working towards a restoration of proper balance between private property rights and the public domain in data and information arises from considerations beyond the need to protect the public knowledge commons upon which the vitality of open science depends. Policy-makers who seek to configure the institutional infrastructure to better accommodate emerging commercial opportunities of the information-intensive “new economy” – in the developed and developing countries alike –therefore have a common interest in reducing the impediments to the future commercial exploitation of peer-to-peer networking technologies which are likely to be posed by ever-more stringent enforcement of intellectual property rights.

    TOWARDS INSTITUTIONAL INFRASTRUCTURES FOR E-SCIENCE: The Scope of the Challenge

    Get PDF
    The three-fold purpose of this Report to the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Research Councils (UK) is to: ‱ articulate the nature and significance of the non-technological issues that will bear on the practical effectiveness of the hardware and software infrastructures that are being created to enable collaborations in e- Science; ‱ characterise succinctly the fundamental sources of the organisational and institutional challenges that need to be addressed in regard to defining terms, rights and responsibilities of the collaborating parties, and to illustrate these by reference to the limited experience gained to date in regard to intellectual property, liability, privacy, and security and competition policy issues affecting scientific research organisations; and ‱ propose approaches for arriving at institutional mechanisms whose establishment would generate workable, specific arrangements facilitating collaboration in e-Science; and, that also might serve to meet similar needs in other spheres such as e- Learning, e-Government, e-Commerce, e-Healthcare. In carrying out these tasks, the report examines developments in enhanced computer-mediated telecommunication networks and digital information technologies, and recent advances in technologies of collaboration. It considers the economic and legal aspects of scientific collaboration, with attention to interactions between formal contracting and 'private ordering' arrangements that rest upon research community norms. It offers definitions of e-Science, virtual laboratories, collaboratories, and develops a taxonomy of collaborative e-Science activities which is implemented to classify British e-Science pilot projects and contrast these with US collaboratory projects funded during the 1990s. The approach to facilitating inter-organizational participation in collaborative projects rests upon the development of a modular structure of contractual clauses that permit flexibility and experience-based learning.

    Evaluating the Impact of Technology Development Funds in Emerging Economies: Evidence from Latin-America

    Get PDF
    Evaluations of government Technology Development Funds (TDFs) in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Panama are surveyed. All the evaluations were done at the recipient (firm) level using data from innovation surveys, industrial surveys, and administrative records of the granting units, together with quasi-experimental econometric techniques to minimize the effects of any selection bias. TDF effectiveness is found to depend on the financing mechanism used, on the presence of non-financial constraints, on firm-university interaction, and on the characteristics of the target beneficiaries. Four levels of potential impact were considered: R&D input additionality, behavioural additionality, increases in innovative output, and improvements in performance. The evidence suggests that TDF do not crowd out private investment and that they positively affect R&D intensity. In addition, participation in TDF induces a more proactive attitude of beneficiary firms towards innovation activities. However, the analysis does not find much statistically significant impact on patents or new product sales and the evidence on firm performance is mixed, with positive results in terms of firm growth, but little corresponding positive impact on measures of firm productivity, possibly because the horizon over which the evaluation was conducted was too short.Innovation and R&D, Policy Evaluation

    IT Spin-Offs into the European Research Framework: An Innovative Configuration

    Get PDF
    In the current context, characterized by a sort of ‘open innovation’, spin-offs phenomenon represents an innovative approach to support technological knowledge transfer and innovation processes from research organizations to industrial world. Furthermore, spin-offs could be considered an innovative strategy to follow up the results obtained within collaborative R&D (Research and Development) projects. In view of these phenomena, this paper analyzes IT spin-offs created by European cooperative research projects, as an innovative strategy to follow up research outcomes. After providing a classification of the different spin-off configurations, the paper designs an innovative inter-organizational configuration of spin-offs coming from research activities. The LD-CAST case study, concerning an European research co-operative project in the fields of egovernment and transnational knowledge, close the work showing how the spin-off strategy may be used to exploit innovative interoperable e-business services

    The role of internal R&D in operational performance as moderated by intellectual property rights: The Malaysian manufacturing perspective

    Get PDF
    This paper reviews the role played by a company’s internal R&D in stimulating operational performance of a manufacturing company, which is moderated by intellectual property rights (IPR), particularly patents, in Malaysia.The constructs of this paper are based on a comprehensive review of recent literature on internal R&D and operational performance moderated by patents. A detailed discussion revealed implications on policy making, especially for government or related authorities in promoting and enforcing IPR. IPR policy especially regarding patents should be part of a company’s business strategy. Implementing IPR will safeguard new invention, innovation, or processes in the long run. Furthermore, the company may gain benefits in creating new business opportunity during various patenting stages.The environment and conditions for R&D activity have changed significantly in the last decade.Thus, effective practice of internal R&D gives advantage to the company from three different aspects; namely, the ability to develop and grow critical human resource, dynamic involvement in the corporate R&D programme, and the ability to connect information. Therefore, the relationship between internal R&D and operational performance moderated by IPR would encourage the betterment of the company in the future.In summary, this paper highlights the importance of internal R&D toward operational performance of a company moderated by IPR, as well as reviews the latest literature from the perspectives of sustainability and innovation

    Capitalising new knowledge through R&D alliances: evidence from Catalan technology centres

    Get PDF
    Science-industry R&D alliances have been a longstanding object of analysis in the literature as they are reinforced by the changing global economy and the fast-moving nature of technological research. In order to advance knowledge on how these alliances should be designed and managed, this paper examines whether the factors most valued by technology centres to engage in science-industry R&D alliances have an impact on the success of the alliance: planning, partner profile, trustworthiness, IPR protection issues and communication channels. The empirical application considers 58 technology centres located in the Spanish region of Catalonia from which data were collected. First, using factor analysis, we validate that items included in the survey are indeed grouped into the five factors identified in the literature review. Second, we use qualitative comparative analysis to explore which combination of factors best explains successful R&D alliances.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

    An Economic Model for Bioprospecting Contracts

    Get PDF
    This paper explores the use of a micro-economic model to analyse the provisions and parties of bioprospecting contracts. It focuses on the pharmaceutical industry as the representative biodiversity buyer, presenting an original theoretical framework that explains the main contract characteristics or stylised facts. Against this background, it considers the main contractors involved in these private contracts, i.e. biodiversity sellers and biodiversity buyers, analysing both the magnitude and distribution of the respective payoffs. Particular attention is devoted to the different, mixed impacts of bioprospecting contracts and patenting on social welfare. The positive welfare impacts delivered by bioprospecting contracts are associated with the potential discovery of a new drug product, i.e. productivity gains, non-monetary benefit-sharing or transfers and royalty revenues. The negative welfare impact results from the legal creation of a monopoly and the related well-known effect on the consumer surplus. Finally, the potential redistribution effects are limited, and a potential enforcement of this objective may jeopardise the desirability of the contracts since this action would lead to a significant increase in the transaction costs.Bioprospecting Contract, Genetic Resource, Biodiversity Buyer, Biodiversity Seller, Patenting, Welfare Analysis, Benefit Sharing
    • 

    corecore