Scientists' engagement in knowledge transfer and exchange: Individual factors, variety of mechanisms and users

[EN] This article aims to provide a deeper understanding of the individual factors behind scientists' involvement in a wide variety of knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE) activities. By doing so, the article addresses three major shortcomings in the literature. First, this article considers scientists' involvement in both formal and informal KTE activities. Secondly, the study focuses not only on KTE activities with the private sector, but also with other types of agents. Thirdly, the article adopts an individual approach to distinguish between three types of KTE predictors: individual capacities, training and career trajectories, and motivations. Overall, the results of the regression model applied to a sample of 1,295 researchers active in the largest public research organization in Spain (CSIC) suggest that, while some individual features are connected to some KTE activities, other individual predictors (e.g. multitasking and interdisciplinarity) are more evenly associated to a variety of KTE mechanisms and users. Based on those findings, the article offers policy recommendations to craft more accurate policies to encourage scientists' KTE engagement.The empirical activity of this work was supported by the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) through the IMPACTO project [Ref. 200410E639]; the authors acknowledge CSIC and other IMPACTO project researchers (INGENIO and IESA) for their work and the CSIC researchers whose answers to the questionnaire enabled us to develop the database. The authors acknowledge the financial support received from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Ref. CS02013-48053-R). The views expressed here are those of the authors and in no circumstance should be regarded as representing the official position of the European Commission.Llopis, O.; Sánchez-Barrioluengo, M.; Olmos-Peñuela, J.; Castro-Martínez, E. (2018). Scientists' engagement in knowledge transfer and exchange: Individual factors, variety of mechanisms and users. Science and Public Policy. 45(6):790-803. https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scy020S79080345

Managing university-industry linkage in government universities of Ethiopia : challenges and opportunities

This study set-out to examine how university-industry linkage (UIL) is managed in government universities of Ethiopia to contribute to the economic development of the country. Basic questions related to the level of management of UIL, areas of linkage, benefits obtained so far from this partnership, challenges to the proper management of UIL, and the existing opportunities for promoting UIL were raised. In addition to this, strategies for strengthening UIL were also dealt with. In relation to this, the study was framed with the system theory viewpoints and human capital theory viewing universities as a system linked to its external environment like industries. As a model, interactive/balanced type of Triple Helix model was used as it integrates the activities of the government, universities and the industries. Moreover, this study reviewed global perspectives on UIL and an overview of the study context with greater emphasis on higher education reforms and proclamations. Philosophically, this study followed pragmatism research paradigm using mixed research approach. It also employed concurrent/parallel/convergent design in which both quantitative and qualitative data were collected simultaneously, interpreted separately and combined at the time of discussion for better understanding of the problem. Equal importance for both data sets was given. Data were gathered from 99 college deans and department heads, 200 instructors and 316 prospective graduates. In addition to this, 23 interviewees from UILOs, industries, MoE, and MoST took part in this study. Moreover, two focus group discussions were also conducted with the university alumni and data were gathered through survey questionnaires, semi-structured interview, FGD question guides and document reviews. The study result indicated that both quantitative and qualitative data support one another. It was found out that UIL was at its infant stage of development in government universities of Ethiopia with limited areas, dominated by students’ internship. Ethiopian government universities have a link with the industries in areas of some limited joint research projects, consultancies and capacity building. Consequently, universities benefitted by attaching their students with the industries and students got practical exposure to the real world of work. Industries also benefitted from the training provided to them, consultancies and joint research projects. On the other hand, UIL in government universities of Ethiopia was challenged by institutional bottlenecks, policy-practice gaps, contextual variation and information gaps, finance and awareness related caveats, work overload, and facility related hurdles. Moreover, lack of trust and commitment between U & I, lack of commitment and support from the leadership of both universities and industries, and the reluctance of the local industries to work with the universities remained a big rift to UIL. This study also sheds light on the expansion of universities and industries in different parts of the country as the opportunities to be tapped to promote UIL. Further, the attention of the government by designing different policies, strategies, directives and conferences was taken as the opportunity. As a major contribution, this study came up with the model that was designed to improve the practice of management of UIL in government universities of Ethiopia. To overcome the above challenges and to make use of existing opportunities, it was recommended that improving leadership and management related challenges through joint planning, organising, staffing and decision-making. Moreover, it was highly laudable to make a paradigm shift in the roles of universities from teaching dominated to research and innovation universities. Finally, bridging policy-practice gaps, increase networking, arranging various sensitising and advertising programmes and creating a further avenue for more research were commented.Educational Leadership and ManagementD. Ed. (Education Management

Evaluating and Managing the Energy Transition Towards Truly Sustainable University Campuses

This thesis is about the current role of university campuses to contribute to a fair and sustainable transition towards a low-carbon society. The fundamental argument is that there is a serious gap between the aspiration of higher education institutions in relation to sustainability and the current reality. Whilst formally moving towards sustainability within their curricula and resources management, universities are still immersed in all the complexity, the uncertainty, the scarcity of resources and the leading green-washing paradigm of the cities they are in. This thesis uses the Politecnico di Torino as the main case study, compared with universities in Italy, the UK, Japan, and Mexico, to answer the following questions: (1) What are universities doing in their sustainability efforts that has the potential to be measurable and transferable? And (2) How can we evaluate if universities are truly sustainable? This thesis treats university campuses as small cities nested in bigger cities; heterotopies expressing otherness and maintaining reciprocal relationships within the context. It is proposed that the immediate impacts deriving from educating and practising a wiser use of waste, water, energy and the built environment in universities help to create long term effects toward resilient, fair, and environmentally aware communities. Comparable clusters of universities, bottom-up management schemes and transferrable lessons for the wider urban and global practices are presented and discussed across the different case studies. To facilitate the dialogue between the economic, the social and the environmental fields of action, embedded within university’s sustainability metrics and the attempts to operationalise urban resilience determinants in the campus management, this thesis helps in tailoring appropriate assessment methodologies and operative strategies towards truly sustainable university campuses

Institutional and Individual Influences on Scientists\u27 Data Sharing Behaviors

In modern research activities, scientific data sharing is essential, especially in terms of data-intensive science and scholarly communication. Scientific communities are making ongoing endeavors to promote scientific data sharing. Currently, however, data sharing is not always well-deployed throughout diverse science and engineering disciplines. Disciplinary traditions, organizational barriers, lack of technological infrastructure, and individual perceptions often contribute to limit scientists from sharing their data. Since scientists\u27 data sharing practices are embedded in their respective disciplinary contexts, it is necessary to examine institutional influences as well as individual motivations on scientists\u27 data sharing behaviors. The objective of this research is to investigate the institutional and individual factors which influence scientists\u27 data sharing behaviors in diverse scientific communities. Two theoretical perspectives, institutional theory and theory of planned behavior, are employed in developing a conceptual model, which shows the complementary nature of the institutional and individual factors influencing scientists\u27 data sharing behaviors. Institutional theory can explain the context in which individual scientists are acting; whereas the theory of planned behavior can explain the underlying motivations behind scientists\u27 data sharing behaviors in an institutional context. This research uses a mixed-method approach by combining qualitative and quantitative methods: (1) interviews with the scientists in diverse scientific disciplines to understand the extent to which they share their data with other researchers and explore institutional and individual factors affecting their data sharing behaviors; and (2) survey research to examine to what extent those institutional and individual factors influence scientists\u27 data sharing behaviors in diverse scientific disciplines. The interview study with 25 scientists shows three groups of data sharing factors, including institutional influences (i.e. regulative pressures by funding agencies and journals and normative pressure); individual motivations (i.e. perceived benefit, risk, effort and scholarly altruism); and institutional resources (i.e. metadata and data repositories). The national survey (with 1,317 scientists in 43 disciplines) shows that regulative pressure by journals; normative pressure at a discipline level; and perceived career benefit and scholarly altruism at an individual level have significant positive relationships with data sharing behaviors; and that perceived effort has a significant negative relationship. Regulative pressure by funding agencies and the availability of data repositories at a discipline level and perceived career risk at an individual level were not found to have any significant relationships with data sharing behavior

An illustrative phenomenographic case study : charting the landscape of "public understanding of science"

x, 225 leaves ; 29 cm. --A cross-disciplinary literature review returns conflicting renditions on the nature of science, science’s place in society, and the public understanding of science. The phenomenon of science appears as many things to many people—a situation consistent with a phenomenographic non-dualist ontology that accepts a single, but variably experienced, real world. This study begins a process for comprehensively charting the landscape of Public Understanding of Science. In foregrounding the reflexive interplay of science and society, the resultant typography of science could, in turn, inform a mindful evolution of science curricula. In this study, a phenomenographic analysis of Public Understanding of Science journal article, “Fantastically reasonable: Ambivalence in the representation of science and technology in super-hero comics” (Locke, 2005) illustrates the phenomenographic process and provides a model for the application of phenomenographic methodology to systematically chart the nature of science as publicly experienced and understood

Universities and Regional Engagement

The study of universities’ role in regional engagement has traditionally been focusing on exceptional cases. This book presents a reconceptualision which embraces its underlying complexity, and proposes a roadmap for a renewed research agenda. Starting from the grassroots level of universities’ "everyday" engagements, the book delves into the manifold ways in which university knowledge agents build connections with regional partners. Through eleven empirical chapters, the authors not only chart the diversity amongst case institutions, engagement mechanisms and regional contexts, but also use that diversity to advance a novel conceptual framework for unpacking university-regions’ everyday activities, taking into account the dynamic, complex and co-evolving interplay between (a) key social agents and institutions, (b) the contexts in which they are embedded, as well as (c) the historical trajectories and strategic ambitions underpinning context-specific social- arrangements and interactions that are mediated by temporal and spatial dimensions. Drawing on evolutionary economic geography, innovation studies, management and organisation studies, and historical perspectives, the volume advances a new mode of understanding university-regional engagement as a form of extendable temporary coupling, which also helps to address perennial policy and managerial questions alike of what to do with universities that do not serve local labour market needs, and/or are located in regions suffering from brain drain.　The book illustrates such dynamics from diverse national contexts: Brazil, Caribbean, China, Italy, Norway, and Poland. This book will be valuable reading for advanced students, researchers and policy makers working in economic geography, regional development, innovation and higher education management

Energy management: An intervention-based analysis

Buildings account for approximately 40% of global energy use and emit 33% of global GHG emissions. Buildings also offer the greatest potential for GHG emission reductions, as energy consumption within existing stock can be reduced by 30-80% using proven and commercially available technologies. Despite this promise, there is a pervasive ‘performance gap’ between optimal and actual energy use within buildings, even in retrofitted or new high-performance buildings. This gap is attributed to the decision-making of individuals and organizations that occupy buildings and use energy services, resulting in both market and non-market failures. As such, energy efficiency is widely recognized as critical behavioural component that needs to be addressed in climate change mitigation strategy and policy, aimed at reducing the performance gap. Globally, energy efficiency finance is one of six workstreams under the G20 Energy Efficiency Action Plan, and is seen as an essential component in achieving the United Nations’ 7th Sustainable Development Goal (SGD) to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all”. Currently, there is an estimated $430 billion USD shortfall in energy efficiency investments to meet this goal; global government and utility spending on energy efficiency was estimated to be US$25.6 billion in 2017, and is expected to grow to US$56.1 billion in 2026. While the enormous and increasing amounts of taxpayer dollars being spent on energy efficiency around the world are promising, the varying degrees of performance outcomes resulting from these efforts are cause for concern. Examinations of national energy efficiency policies have shown only modest impact on national GHG emissions reductions and that defining energy as a demand-side resource limits the extent to which energy efficiency can be achieved. In addition, spending public funds to reduce negative externalities instead of correcting the internalization of external costs creates asymmetric incentives, leading to heterogeneous results. Drawing from the pro-environmental behaviour change literature, this dissertation positions stakeholder engagement an integral part of the success of energy efficiency programs, and thus focuses on the energy management decisions of various stakeholders at multiple scales within an energy systems context. Specifically, the relationship between voluntary programs and decisions about electricity consumption – i.e., do the former actually cause the latter to change – is expanded upon in three distinct (but interrelated) papers. The overall goal of this research was to investigate the success factors and barriers to the achievement of GHG emissions reductions in Ontario and to identify potential opportunities to achieve greater energy efficiency and conservation outcomes. Chapter Two of this dissertation presents a scoping review of the pro-environmental behaviour change literature, with a focus on the important/influential communities of scholarship that shape the structure of the field, and the extent to which emerging research fronts reflect the structural themes. The results revealed that the Journal of Social Issues (JSI) 2000 Vol. 56 Issue 3 was a compilation of important/influential papers, measured by co-citation analysis, bibliometric coupling analysis, and four types of centrality. A dense, six-cluster network was revealed, with two papers from this special issue by Stern and Dunlap & Van Liere forming the lobes of the structure. The four themes identified by the editors of the JSI 2000 special issue – synthesis, motives/values, power, and applicability – were found to generally map onto the structural network. This scoping review also revealed that the emerging research fronts reflect a stronger focus on the applicability of environmental behaviour change theories on salient issues such as consumerism, household (Abrahamse & Steg, 2011) and workplace energy consumption, transportation choice, and tourism. Chapter Three of this dissertation addresses the identified gap related to consequences of intervention design and implementation through a quantitative analysis of data collected by the Ontario Energy Board (OEB). A multi-level growth curve model was used to explain the achievement and rate of change towards the provincial Peak Demand and Cumulative Energy Savings targets by Ontario’s local distribution companies (LDCs) from 2011-2014, the first Conservation First Framework period. While there was insufficient variance in the data to allow for analysis of the Peak Demand target, the model revealed statistically significant variability in the achievement of the Net Cumulative Energy Savings target, as well as the rate of change towards the target amongst the LDCs. The results showed that in the Ontario context, customer density was statistically significant in predicting the achievement of an LDC’s Net Cumulative Energy Savings target. More importantly, the statistically significant variance of the rate of change over time demonstrates that LDCs moved towards their respective targets at different rates. This variance was largely left unexplained by the multi-level model developed in this case study, therefore opportunities remain to improve the model and offer further insight into Ontario’s energy conservation landscape at this level of the energy system. Chapter Four of this dissertation focused on the end use of energy, applying systems theory to explore opportunities to reduce the performance gap in commercial office buildings. This study used interview data from Ontario and Alberta, two provinces with different electricity grid compositions, electricity prices, and levels of energy consumption. A conceptual overview of the relationships between system components was developed, and five modes of behaviour were identified as pathways for increasing the investment in building retrofits and stakeholder engagement in energy behaviour programs. In this case study, evidence of collaboration between stakeholders to discuss shared benefits and outcomes created win-win scenarios, and mitigated some of the split-incentive challenges that have been documented in the literature. Findings from this dissertation contribute to the pro-environmental behaviour change literature by offering quantitative and qualitative evidence that deepen existing knowledge on the design and implementation of interventions to improve energy efficiency outcomes. Collectively, the three distinct papers presented in this dissertation established a need to examine the performance gap through a systems framework in order to ascertain the extent to which impacts at the infrastructure, institutional, and individual levels of the energy system are being addressed, and to leverage opportunities to catalyze motivations and reduce barriers for all system stakeholders, simultaneously. This framework is critical because individuals and organizations do not make decisions about energy efficiency and conservation in isolation; rather they are part of complex and nested social networks, where behaviour is influenced by the interactions and relationships between system components. Several key conclusions emerged from the synthesis of three papers. Considering electric distribution utilities as the unit of analysis, financial and operational metrics were insufficient at explaining the variability in CDM target achievement and the rate of change towards targets over time, pointing to a need to establish other differences between utilities that may have more predictive power. In the commercial real estate sector, corporate leadership and organizational culture were found to be determinants of retrofit investment behavior, prompting the question of whether such characteristics may also influence CDM target achievement in utilities

Information and communication technology and educational services management at a Ugandan university

This thesis focuses explicitly on the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a strategy for delivering effective management of educational services in a cross-section of educational institutions, inclusive of universities. University of Uganda (UNU)1 , in Uganda, is taken as a case study where ICT was introduced with the primary aim of improving effectiveness in the delivery of educational services. ICT has become a tool of great importance in today’s business in all spheres of life globally. From commerce to aeronautics, medicine to education, the daily use of ICT is vital to the success of the business. In the area of higher education management, ICT use is of central significance as universities of the contemporary world cannot afford to ignore the role of that ICT plays in the running of their institutions as a business and, as such, need to ensure they are not left behind by the developments. Therefore, as a matter of necessity, the universities are required to embrace ICT adoption in teaching/learning and administrative activities. This study discusses the concept of ICT, perceptions of stakeholders in the effectiveness of ICT adoption, educational services management and ICT and strategies for effective ICT use in educational services management.Educational Management and LeadershipD. Ed. (Education Management

Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences

Universities across the globe have, for some time, been exploring the possibilities for achieving public benefit and generating business and visibility through releasing and sharing open educational resources (OER). Many have written about the need to develop sustainable and profitable business models around the production and release of OER. Downes (2006), for example, has questioned the financial sustainability of OER production at scale. Many of the proposed business models focus on OER’s value in generating revenue and detractors of OER have questioned whether they are in competition with formal education. This paper reports on a study intended to broaden the conversation about OER business models to consider the motivations and experiences of OER users as the basis for making a better informed decision about whether OER and formal learning are competitive or complementary with each other. The study focused on OpenLearn - the Open University’s (OU) web-based platform for OER, which hosts hundreds of online courses and videos and is accessed by over 3,000,000 users a year. A large scale survey and follow-up interviews with OpenLearn users worldwide revealed that university provided OER can offer learners a bridge to formal education, allowing them to try out a subject before registering on a formal course and to build confidence in their abilities as learners. In addition, it was found that using OER during formal paid-for study can improve learners’ performance and self-reliance, leading to increased retention and satisfaction with the learning experience