3,268 research outputs found

    Improving the SEP licensing framework by revising SSOs’ IPR policies

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    This thesis examines the SEP licensing framework with a view to understanding whether it can be improved by revising IPR policies. The ICT standardisation, which provides interoperability, is one of the building blocks of the modern economy. Put simply, without standards, there would not be IoT or for example, consumers would only be able to connect to a wireless network with devices specifically built for that network. Standards are not a new phenomenon; however, they became more complex with the increasing importance of technology, which made them, in return, more dependent on patented technologies (i.e. SEPs). SEPs cause complications in standardisation as they require SEP owners and potential licensees to negotiate/agree on usually complex licensing agreements. Although SSOs have attempted to regulate this relationship with their IPR policies, now it seems these policies cannot keep up with the changing dynamics and needs in standardisation. Dysfunctions in the system do not only affect competition in the relevant markets, they also prejudice consumers’ interests, for example, by passing on higher prices to cover supra-competitive royalties. In particular, since the first Rambus case in the US, competition/antitrust agencies and courts have been dealing with SEP-related issues. Recently, the EU has been considering addressing some of those with legislation. Conversely, this research derives from the notion that active standardisation participants are better equipped to deal with SEP-related issues, and flexible IPR policies are more suitable for addressing these issues in the dynamic standardisation ecosystem. Against this backdrop, this comparative research aims to identify areas where SEP licensing framework can be improved by reforming IPR policies, and it develops some proposals using the black-letter and empirical research methods that SSOs can implement

    NEMISA Digital Skills Conference (Colloquium) 2023

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    The purpose of the colloquium and events centred around the central role that data plays today as a desirable commodity that must become an important part of massifying digital skilling efforts. Governments amass even more critical data that, if leveraged, could change the way public services are delivered, and even change the social and economic fortunes of any country. Therefore, smart governments and organisations increasingly require data skills to gain insights and foresight, to secure themselves, and for improved decision making and efficiency. However, data skills are scarce, and even more challenging is the inconsistency of the associated training programs with most curated for the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Nonetheless, the interdisciplinary yet agnostic nature of data means that there is opportunity to expand data skills into the non-STEM disciplines as well.College of Engineering, Science and Technolog

    Energy Research Governance in the European Union

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    A major share of Europe’s knowledge about its incumbent energy cultures is pre-defined in closed spaces of negotiations. One such space are the negotiations surrounding the European Union´s research and innovation Framework Programmes, which are the focus of this thesis. With these programmes, the European Union not only funds energy research across Europe, but likewise produces guiding energy research narratives that act beyond their scope into the research agendas of its Member States. Energy research governance, considered as the wider scope surrounding the Framework Programmes negotiations in the European Union, takes place in hybrid spaces, were science and politics meet and are influencing each other, inheriting limiting, and enabling effects on both sides. This study aims to determine how these spaces are organised, who is participating under which conditions, and how decisions on energy research agendas and research funding conditions are taken. Therefore, this thesis enfolds the emergence history of energy policy, research policy and the governance of its overlap, namely energy research. It then examines in depth the negotiations that took place during the reform process of the Frame-work Programmes between its seventh and eighth repetition. The perspective of scientific, political and hybrid social worlds is taken to draw an encompassing picture of the situation of energy research governance of the European Union. The methodological background of this study is a situational analysis, which was conducted based on narrative expert interviews, participant observations and documents, drawing on sensitizing concepts from the fields of Science and Technology Studies, sociology, and political sciences. The investigated hybrid spaces revealed the importance of historical rooted (energy) re-search narratives, that are combined with a set of standards and standardized governance practices making the Framework Programmes a robust governance tool, despite changing political climates. Moreover, the role of so far largely overlooked boundary social worlds became apparent. Whereas strategies of narrative governance were found to be a structuring element across all social worlds and hybrid spaces. The newly developed continuum of implicatedness disclosed movements of visibility and agency among the participating negotiators of energy research governance. These results have in common that they bear diverse forms of ambivalences a collective, an individual or a group of collectives is confronted with. The author concludes that these the ambivalences must be met with strategies of disclosure and debate, rather than with vain attempts to resolve irresolvable contradictions

    Financial and Economic Review 22.

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    Net Zero Roadmap for Copper and Nickel

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    As we seek to meet the challenges of climate change impacts, many commodities will play an increasing role in decarbonizing economies. There are increasing challenges of addressing the emissions from extraction of these commodities needed to support the zero-carbon transition. CCSI, in a consortium with Carbon Trust, RMI, and the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines, developed the Net Zero Roadmap to 2050 for Copper and Nickel Value Chains to support the copper and nickel mining sectors in taking collective, coordinated action by providing a clear, approachable, and accepted roadmap for decarbonization. Our key messages to mining CEOs are as follows: Demand for Energy Transition Metals (ETMs) doubles GHG emissions. To reach net zero, ETM emissions will need to reduce by 90%. Technological solutions are already or soon will be available. Three waves of technology deployment: (i) Renewable energy, site operational energy efficiency improvements, and process optimization; (ii) zero-emissions haulage trucks; (iii) process heat electrification and green hydrogen. Enormous ESG risks associated with rising ETM demand. For example, many copper and nickel reserves are located in high water risk and high biodiversity areas respectively, necessitating proactive and responsible management. Just Transition. Mining companies, governments and other actors have an important role in enabling communities to reimagine their future at the center of a new climate economy and in the process build community resilience. Collaboration is key to achieving net zero. Mining companies, value chain actors, and policymakers must work together to accelerate the development, deployment, and co-investment in the technological innovations required for the mine of the future, and to develop net zero industry standards, regulations, and frameworks. The project was commissioned by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), as part of the World Bank Group’s Climate-Smart Mining initiative

    The association of formal and informal institutions with total entrepreneurial activity: a neo-institutional theory approach

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    The thesis aims to identify the antecedents of total entrepreneurial activity (TEA) across OECD nations as this is key to national economic progress. Successive studies have associated TEA with informal institutions such as power distance (PD), individualism-collectivism (IND) and uncertainty avoidance (UA) but policymakers can do nothing about these in the short term. Two contributions are claimed. First, the thesis considers relatively new informal institutional dimensions (long-term orientation (LTO) and indulgence versus restraint (IVR)). However, these informal institutions (dimensions of national culture) cannot be modified by governments within a country but may influence the design of formal institutions (FIs). Thus, the second contribution arises from a consideration of two FIs (property rights (PRs) and access to finance (ATF)) as moderators of the main associations between informal institutions and TEA. These institutions may be modified by governments, so it is important to understand them, theoretically and empirically. PRs are analysed as they allow an organised market system to function, providing certainty for entrepreneurs engaging in TEA. Similarly, ATF may be needed for entrepreneurs to sustain or grow their ventures. A lack of ATF encountered by entrepreneurs is commonly viewed as the largest constraint to the creation and development of ventures. The results for this thesis are mixed, Model 1 looks at direct associations between national culture and TEA, and half of the hypotheses are supported. Model 2 (which studies the moderation by PRs and ATF of the relationships between informal institutions and TEA) has five out of the six hypotheses accepted for the PR-moderated hypotheses. This demonstrates that PRs have generally been found to have a positive moderating association with TEA, but ATF surprisingly generates an overall negative moderating association on informal institutions’ associations with TEA. OECD nations may therefore wish to encourage more effective PRs to further exploit the potential of TEA. In relation to ATF, FIs may need to tailor specific financial packages (or assistance) for specific industries which may have different gestation periods and tangible assets. Only one hypothesis appears to be accepted for ATF moderations. This may be explained by the quality of the institutional environment where a higher-quality institutional environment may have less impact as a moderator on TEA. In lower-quality institutional environments, FIs may have much more explanatory power. Overall, the models utilised in the thesis have resulted in a more nuanced study of the institutions that influence TEA
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