Swedish Universities in Transition: From “Mode 1†to what?

This paper aims at analyzing the obstacles to in-depth cooperation between Swedish universities and other parts of society. Social capital is used as a comprehensive concept for the norms, values and relations that exist in the university sector and between this sector and the surrounding society. A working hypothesis is that universities’ social capital is adapted by tradition to then Mode 1 production of knowledge, and that a transition to Mode 2 therefore requires a comprehensive change in the universities’ social capital. After an introduction, section 2 gives a background in its description of the development of the Swedish university policy, mainly from a national perspective. In section 3 an analysis is made of the reasons why Swedish universities still mainly are dominated by Mode 1 production of knowledge and in section 4, a number of areas that deserve further illumination are given prominence. In both these sections, norms, values and networks are central concepts in the analysis. Together these phenomena form the social capital of the universities and between the universities and other parts of society and the conclusion is that this constitutes an important obstacle to the development of a Mode 2 production of knowledge in Sweden.

Quo vadimus: Coming to grips with the information world

The new information-oriented culture in which we find ourselves has created new relationships, new stimulating and expanding opportunities, new methods of doing our work, and new environments in which we carry out our work. An integral part of the NASA aerospace research and development (R and D) process is the scientific and technical information (STI) associated with it; it is both a raw material (input) and a product (output) of this process. Within this process, the NASA STI Program is tasked to provide information management and services, to ensure that accurate and timely STI is generated and entered into an appropriate information service and made available in a usable form to those who have a need for it; in essence, a means to exploit both internal (NASA corporate) and pertinent external (other governmental/industrial/foreign) information to meet the requirements of the R and D community. To understand the STI Program management issues, it is critical to understand the role of the STI Program in the context of the R and D process. STI management must become part of the accepted culture of the R and D community, but it cannot become so unless adopted and accepted by it. A start should be made now to integrate the NASA STI Program into the R and D infrastructure, including funding and operational control. Within this infrastructure, we must obtain management commitment, review and produce policy reflecting the organizational status, allocate responsibilities, and set to work on implementing the true requirements of the R and D community

E-finance-lab at the House of Finance : about us

The financial services industry is believed to be on the verge of a dramatic [r]evolution. A substantial redesign of its value chains aimed at reducing costs, providing more efficient and flexible services and enabling new products and revenue streams is imminent. But there seems to be no clear migration path nor goal which can cast light on the question where the finance industry and its various players will be and should be in a decade from now. The mission of the E-Finance Lab is the development and application of research methodologies in the financial industry that promote and assess how business strategies and structures are shared and supported by strategies and structures of information systems. Important challenges include the design of smart production infrastructures, the development and evaluation of advantageous sourcing strategies and smart selling concepts to enable new revenue streams for financial service providers in the future. Overall, our goal is to contribute methods and views to the realignment of the E-Finance value chain. ..

The Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries: Issues, Terminology, Principles, Institutional Foundations, Implementation and Outlook

Ecosystems are complex and dynamic natural units that produce goods and services beyond those of benefit to fisheries. Because fisheries have a direct impact on the ecosystem, which is also impacted by other human activities, they need to be managed in an ecosystem context. The meaning of the terms 'ecosystem management', 'ecosystem based management', 'ecosystem approach to fisheries'(EAF), etc., are still not universally defined and progressively evolving. The justification of EAF is evident in the characteristics of an exploited ecosystem and the impacts resulting from fisheries and other activities. The rich set of international agreements of relevance to EAF contains a large number of principles and conceptual objectives. Both provide a fundamental guidance and a significant challenge for the implementation of EAF. The available international instruments also provide the institutional foundations for EAF. The FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries is particularly important in this respect and contains provisions for practically all aspects of the approach. One major difficulty in defining EAF lies precisely in turning the available concepts and principles into operational objectives from which an EAF management plan would more easily be developed. The paper discusses these together with the types of action needed to achieve them. Experience in EAF implementation is still limited but some issues are already apparent, e.g. in added complexity, insufficient capacity, slow implementation, need for a pragmatic approach, etc. It is argued, in conclusion, that the future of EAF and fisheries depends on the way in which the two fundamental concepts of fisheries management and ecosystem management, and their respective stakeholders, will join efforts or collide

Science advice to governments: diverse systems, common challenges

This briefing paper formed the basis of discussions at the 'Science Advice to Governments' summit, which took place in Auckland, New Zealand from 28-29 August 2014, and was attended by science advisors and policymakers from 48 countries

HealthyGrowth - From niche to volume with integrity and trust

Die Märkte für ökologisch erzeugte Nahrungsmittel unterscheiden sich zwar in den europäischen Ländern. In allen aber ist eine Steigerung des ökologischen Handelsvolumens erwünscht, wobei kleine wie große Vermarkter mit spezifischen Problemen konfrontiert sind. Während kleine Unternehmen oder Initiativen oft an der Verfügbarkeit großer Mengen scheitern, müssen sich große Unternehmen der Herausforderung stellen, den umfassenden Qualitätsanforderungen gerecht zu werden und dem Kunden die Werte ökologisch produzierter Nahrungsmittel glaubhaft zu vermitteln. Das Projekt HEALTHYGROWTH beruht auf der Kooperation von elf Partnern. Das deutsche Team leistet einen Beitrag zu den Arbeitspaketen WP2 bis WP6 und ist verantwortlich für WP7. Die deutschen Fallstudien von mittelgroßen ökologischen Wertschöpfungsketten werden in unterschiedlichen Unternehmen oder Initiativen jeweils mit spezifischen Untersuchungsschwerpunkten stattfinden. Die vergleichende Auswertung der Fallstudien wird thematisch nach Themenfeldern aufgefächert. Diese mehrdimensionale Analyse soll beim Verständnis der Mechanismen wachsender organischer Wertschöpfungsketten helfen. Eine Aufgabe des HNEE-Teams besteht in der Koordination des Transfers von Ergebnissen in Wissenschaft und Praxis. Schlüsselpersonen der Branche werden von Beginn an konsequent eingebunden, um die Praxisrelevanz des Ansatzes und eine effektive Verbreitung der Ergebnisse durch Veröffentlichungen, Seminare usw. zu gewährleisten. Hauptbestandteil der Projektarbeit ist neben den Veröffentlichungen die konsequente Einbindung von Vertretern ökologischer Wertschöpfungsketten. Wissenstransfer und gemeinsame Lernprozesse auf nationaler Ebene und über Ländergrenzen hinweg sind Schwerpunkte im Arbeitspaket WP7, das das deutsche Team leitet. Das deutsche Teilprojekt zielt, ebenso wie das Gesamtprojekt, insbesondere auf den Wissens- und Erfahrungsaustausch ab. Die Verwertung der Ergebnisse besteht vor allem in der Verbreitung von Informationen zu Besonderheiten der Wachstumsprozesse innerhalb der Wertschöpfungskette. Hierzu trägt auch der BLE-Ergebnisflyer bei. HEALTHYGROWTH will Erkenntnisse aus verschiedenen Ländern und Unternehmen bündeln und an die Akteure und ihre Netzwerke weitergeben. Zielgruppen sind nicht nur mittelgroße Bio-Nahrungsmittelhändler, sondern auch Kleinerzeuger und Unternehmen, die sich für neue Formen von Partnerschaften und Kooperationen im ökologischen Nahrungsmittelsektor interessieren. Angaben zur Finanzierung des Projekts finden Sie im Förderkatalog des Bundes unter http://foerderportal.bund.de/foekat/jsp/StartAction.do. Bitte geben Sie in das Suchfeld eine 28 plus das Förderkennzeichen (FKZ) des BÖL-Projektes ein, z.B. 2808OE212 für das BÖL-Projekt mit der FKZ 08OE212

Moral and Ecological Function of Students' Upbringing

The paper considers some social problems and consequences of the consumer attitude of man and modern society to nature. The necessity of changing the stereotypes of man and nature interaction and forming man's reasonable needs is stressed. It is argued that human mentality and value reference points need changing by means of upbringing. The authors develop questions related to the upgrade of higher school in Russia and to the use of functionalist ideas in the upbringing process of higher education institutions. The pedagogical model of implementing the moral and ecological function of students' upbringing at a higher education institution is developed and represented. It includes interrelated structural components: motivational and goal-related, axiological, content-related, technological and final one. The paper reveals the essence of such notions as "new social and ecological ideal", "moral and ecological function of upbringing", "ecological and humanist values". An analysis of upbringing process at a higher education institution is presented from the standpoint of competency-based approach. The researchers underline the significance of art in forming the personality's ecological and humanist values. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd

University press publishing consortium for Africa : lessons from academic libraries

This paper presents the results of a case study of the policies and practices of six African university presses. Based on the findings, it posits the formation of a consortium of African university presses. It borrows heavily from consortium formation in the library world

Regulating Data as Property: A New Construct for Moving Forward

The global community urgently needs precise, clear rules that define ownership of data and express the attendant rights to license, transfer, use, modify, and destroy digital information assets. In response, this article proposes a new approach for regulating data as an entirely new class of property. Recently, European and Asian public officials and industries have called for data ownership principles to be developed, above and beyond current privacy and data protection laws. In addition, official policy guidances and legal proposals have been published that offer to accelerate realization of a property rights structure for digital information. But how can ownership of digital information be achieved? How can those rights be transferred and enforced? Those calls for data ownership emphasize the impact of ownership on the automotive industry and the vast quantities of operational data which smart automobiles and self-driving vehicles will produce. We looked at how, if at all, the issue was being considered in consumer-facing statements addressing the data being collected by their vehicles. To formulate our proposal, we also considered continued advances in scientific research, quantum mechanics, and quantum computing which confirm that information in any digital or electronic medium is, and always has been, physical, tangible matter. Yet, to date, data regulation has sought to adapt legal constructs for “intangible” intellectual property or to express a series of permissions and constraints tied to specific classifications of data (such as personally identifiable information). We examined legal reforms that were recently approved by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law to enable transactions involving electronic transferable records, as well as prior reforms adopted in the United States Uniform Commercial Code and Federal law to enable similar transactions involving digital records that were, historically, physical assets (such as promissory notes or chattel paper). Finally, we surveyed prior academic scholarship in the U.S. and Europe to determine if the physical attributes of digital data had been previously considered in the vigorous debates on how to regulate personal information or the extent, if at all, that the solutions developed for transferable records had been considered for larger classes of digital assets. Based on the preceding, we propose that regulation of digital information assets, and clear concepts of ownership, can be built on existing legal constructs that have enabled electronic commercial practices. We propose a property rules construct that clearly defines a right to own digital information arises upon creation (whether by keystroke or machine), and suggest when and how that right attaches to specific data though the exercise of technological controls. This construct will enable faster, better adaptations of new rules for the ever-evolving portfolio of data assets being created around the world. This approach will also create more predictable, scalable, and extensible mechanisms for regulating data and is consistent with, and may improve the exercise and enforcement of, rights regarding personal information. We conclude by highlighting existing technologies and their potential to support this construct and begin an inventory of the steps necessary to further proceed with this process

The state of Florida's estuaries and future needs in estuarine research: Part 2. an academic research agenda (review draft)

As a program supporting academic research that addresses recognized societal needs, the Florida Sea Grant Program is developing a research theme area on estuaries to provide a uniquely academic product that will augment mission-oriented research undertaken by government and by the private sector. This report is not a call for proposals. It does not prescribe a specific research plan. Rather, it is a concept paper designed to focus research on two broad "organizing themes": (1) the hydrology of Florida's estuaries, and (2) the impact of cyclic environmental variability on estuarine function. (46pp.