Improving technology transfer through national systems of innovation: climate relevant innovation-system builders (CRIBs)

The Technology Executive Committee (TEC) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) recently convened a workshop seeking to understand how strengthening national systems of innovation (NSIs) might help to foster the transfer of climate technologies to developing countries. This article reviews insights from the literatures on Innovation Studies and Socio-Technical Transitions to demonstrate why this focus on fostering innovation systems has potential to be more transformative as an international policy mechanism for climate technology transfer than anything the UNFCCC has considered to date. Based on insights from empirical research, the article also articulates how the existing architecture of the UNFCCC Technology Mechanism could be usefully extended by supporting the establishment of CRIBs (climate relevant innovation-system builders) in developing countries – key institutions focused on nurturing the climate-relevant innovation systems and building technological capabilities that form the bedrock of transformative, climate-compatible technological change and development

For Love and Money: Governance and Social Enterprise

For Love and Money – Governance and Social Enterprise is the result of research commissioned by the Governance Hub, in partnership with the Social Enterprise Coalition, and conducted by third sector specialists from the Open University. It aims to: Identify any characteristics of governance practices specific or distinctive to social enterprises. Identify and examine the governance support needs of social enterprises, the specific sources of governance support they currently access and the limitations and gaps in this provision. Explore how Governance Hub strategies, services and resources, and those of its successor, might be communicated, adapted, or extended to meet the needs of social enterprises

CRIBs (Climate Relevant Innovation-system Builders): an effective way forward for international climate technology policy

National systems of innovation (NSIs) provide the context within which all processes of technology development, transfer and uptake occur - they refer to the network of actors (e.g. firms, universities, research institutes, government departments, NGOs) within which innovation occurs, and the strength and nature of the relationships between them. Nurturing NSIs in relation to climate technologies provides a powerful new focus for international policy with potential to underpin more sustained and widespread development and transfer of climate technologies. This working paper builds on an invited presentation by one of the authors at a workshop on NSIs convened by the Technology Executive Committee (TEC) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It identifies policy recommendations for consideration of the TEC. The intention is both to inform possible recommendations by the TEC to the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) and to highlight potential areas for future work that the TEC could undertake on this issue

A requirements engineering framework for integrated systems development for the construction industry

Computer Integrated Construction (CIC) systems are computer environments through which collaborative working can be undertaken. Although many CIC systems have been developed to demonstrate the communication and collaboration within the construction projects, the uptake of CICs by the industry is still inadequate. This is mainly due to the fact that research methodologies of the CIC development projects are incomplete to bridge the technology transfer gap. Therefore, defining comprehensive methodologies for the development of these systems and their effective implementation on real construction projects is vital. Requirements Engineering (RE) can contribute to the effective uptake of these systems because it drives the systems development for the targeted audience. This paper proposes a requirements engineering approach for industry driven CIC systems development. While some CIC systems are investigated to build a broad and deep contextual knowledge in the area, the EU funded research project, DIVERCITY (Distributed Virtual Workspace for Enhancing Communication within the Construction Industry), is analysed as the main case study project because its requirements engineering approach has the potential to determine a framework for the adaptation of requirements engineering in order to contribute towards the uptake of CIC systems

Implementing a Business Process Management System Using ADEPT: A Real-World Case Study

This article describes how the agent-based design of ADEPT (advanced decision environment for processed tasks) and implementation philosophy was used to prototype a business process management system for a real-world application. The application illustrated is based on the British Telecom (BT) business process of providing a quote to a customer for installing a network to deliver a specified type of telecommunication service. Particular emphasis is placed upon the techniques developed for specifying services, allowing heterogeneous information models to interoperate, allowing rich and flexible interagent negotiation to occur, and on the issues related to interfacing agent-based systems and humans. This article builds upon the companion article (Applied Artificial Intelligence Vol.14, no 2, pgs. 145-189) that provides details of the rationale and design of the ADEPT technology deployed in this application

CRIBs (Climate Relevant Innovation-system Builders): policy recommendations on fostering national systems of innovation under the UNFCCC

National systems of innovation (NSIs) provide the context within which all processes of technology development, transfer and uptake occur - they refer to the network of actors (e.g. firms, universities, research institutes, government departments, NGOs) within which innovation occurs, and the strength and nature of the relationships between them. Nurturing NSIs in relation to climate technologies provides a powerful new focus for international policy with potential to underpin more sustained and widespread development and transfer of climate technologies. This working paper builds on an invited presentation by one of the authors at a workshop on NSIs convened by the Technology Executive Committee (TEC) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It identifies policy recommendations for consideration of the TEC. The intention is both to inform possible recommendations by the TEC to the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) and to highlight potential areas for future work that the TEC could undertake on this issue

Low-carbon innovation for industrial sectors in developing countries

Low-carbon innovation in industrial sectors in developing countries presents economic opportunities that can help realise sustainable development pathways. Under business-as-usual, industries being established in developing countries are likely to move along carbon-intensive or inefficient pathways, increasing greenhouse gas emissions in the short term and the likelihood of establishing high-carbon lock-in over the longer term. However, there is a wealth of evidence from industrialisation experiences around the world demonstrating the kinds of strategies that make it possible to take advantage of low-carbon opportunities to instead create climate-compatible development pathways. This policy brief aims to illuminate potential pathways and policy actions for low-carbon innovation in emerging industry sectors in developing countries. It focusses, firstly, on the low-carbon and energy efficiency gains that are possible in energy-intensive manufacturing. Secondly, the brief explores opportunities for developing countries to insert themselves into global low-carbon value chains by developing manufacturing capacity in energy-supply technologies. The brief ends with policy recommendations that could be enacted at both the national and international levels, making use of existing institutions as well as learning from the literature on past industrialisation experiences

Software engineering and middleware: a roadmap (Invited talk)

The construction of a large class of distributed systems can be simplified by leveraging middleware, which is layered between network operating systems and application components. Middleware resolves heterogeneity and facilitates communication and coordination of distributed components. Existing middleware products enable software engineers to build systems that are distributed across a local-area network. State-of-the-art middleware research aims to push this boundary towards Internet-scale distribution, adaptive and reconfigurable middleware and middleware for dependable and wireless systems. The challenge for software engineering research is to devise notations, techniques, methods and tools for distributed system construction that systematically build and exploit the capabilities that middleware deliver

Defining the nonprofit sectors in Japan and England & Wales: A comparative assessment of common versus civil law

This paper provides a comparative assessment of the legal frameworks for non-profit organisations (NPOs) in England and Japan, offering fresh insights into the differences in legislative support for NPO development in both countries. Following a review of NPO legal developments in England and Japan, we outline the major contemporary issues affecting NPOs and focus on the key challenges of: legislative reform, systems of regulation, accountability and third/public sector partnerships. The paper contributes to knowledge by exploring the potential of comparative assessments of NPO legislation, and highlights the disparities in support for NPOs that are culturally-bound. Also, we contribute to contemporary debate on the ability for NPOs to manage amidst a global climate of change and the possible return to the so-called ‘age of austerity’. Highlighting the differential roles of legal frameworks between cultural contexts shows academics, practitioners and policy makers, the global context of national challenges for NPOs.nonprofit organizations, legal context, partnership, comparative assessment