26,397 research outputs found
âExcellence R Usâ: university research and the fetishisation of excellence
The rhetoric of âexcellenceâ is pervasive across the academy. It is used to refer to research outputs as well as researchers, theory and education, individuals and organisations, from art history to zoology. But does âexcellenceâ actually mean anything? Does this pervasive narrative of âexcellenceâ do any good? Drawing on a range of sources we interrogate âexcellenceâ as a concept and find that it has no intrinsic meaning in academia. Rather it functions as a linguistic interchange mechanism. To investigate whether this linguistic function is useful we examine how the rhetoric of excellence combines with narratives of scarcity and competition to show that the hypercompetition that arises from the performance of âexcellenceâ is completely at odds with the qualities of good research. We trace the roots of issues in reproducibility, fraud, and homophily to this rhetoric. But we also show that this rhetoric is an internal, and not primarily an external, imposition. We conclude by proposing an alternative rhetoric based on soundness and capacity-building. In the final analysis, it turns out that that âexcellenceâ is not excellent. Used in its current unqualified form it is a pernicious and dangerous rhetoric that undermines the very foundations of good research and scholarship
Does New Zealand have an innovation system for biotechnology?
While there is a large and growing international literature on economic aspects of biotechnology innovation (e.g. work by Carlsson, McKelvey, Orsenigo, Zucker and Darby) these studies concentrate on the United States and Europe. The New Zealand biotechnology industry may be expected to develop along a different trajectory as a consequence of a markedly different set of initial and framework conditions. This paper presents the results of an ongoing study that aims to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge of innovation processes in New Zealand while using the international literature as a benchmark. The size and structure of modern biotech activity in New Zealand is described and compared to other OECD countries using biotech patent data and results from the New Zealand and Canadian biotechnology surveys. The paper then focuses on factors affecting innovation in biotechnology; framework conditions, government policy R&D funding and the role of networks and other linkages
Knowledge Spillover Agents and Regional Development
It is widely recognised that knowledge and highly skilled individuals as "carriers" of knowledge (i.e. knowledge spillover agents) play a key role in impelling the development and growth of cities and regions. In this paper we discuss the relation between the mobility of talent and knowledge flows. In this context, several issues are examined, including the role of highly skilled labour for regional development, the features that characterise knowledge spillovers through labour mobility, the key factors for attracting and retaining talent as well as the rise of "brain gain" policies. Although the paper deals with highly skilled mobility and migration in general, a particular attention will be paid to flows of (star) scientists.Series: SRE - Discussion Paper
NASA-universities relationships in aero/space engineering: A review of NASA's program
NASA is concerned about the health of aerospace engineering departments at U.S. universities. The number of advanced degrees in aerospace engineering has declined. There is concern that universities' facilities, research equipment, and instrumentation may be aging or outmoded and therefore affect the quality of research and education. NASA requested that the National Research Council's Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) review NASA's support of universities and make recommendations to improve the program's effectiveness
Bio-techno-practice. Personal and social responsibility in the academic work
The new challenges posed by biomedicine and biotechnologies ask for a deeper consideration on the relationship among
science, knowledge and social responsibility. On one hand, in fact, technologies seem to shape our idea of human progress
and scientific understanding of the natural world and of life in particular. On the other hand, a thoughtful consideration on
the philosophical foundations of science as human enterprise is required. This also opens important questions about the new
emerging paradigms of âexcellenceâ in the academic, social and market fields and on the role that universities play in training the
future leaders and professionals of our society. After a short review of the contemporary philosophical reflections on the unity
of knowledge, which is the origin and the goal of academic work, we argue that adherence to our current challenges through the
bio-techno-practice prism is a fecund driving force of the academic activities. Moving from the experience of an international
project, we also discuss the impact that such interdisciplinary activities have on what we call hidden curriculum, i.e. the embodied
style of (skills that allow) people in taking care of each other in their physical, social, professional and scientific needs
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