What Influences the Diffusion of Grassroots Innovations for Sustainability? Investigating Community Currency Niches

Community action for sustainability is a promising site of socio-technical innovation. Here we test the applicability of co-evolutionary niche theories of innovation diffusion (Strategic Niche Management, SNM) to the context of ‘grassroots innovations’. We present new empirical findings from an international study of 12 community currency niches (such as LETS, time banks, local currencies). These are parallel systems of exchange, designed to operate alongside mainstream money, meeting additional sustainability needs. Our findings confirm SNM predictions that niche-level activity correlates with diffusion success, but we highlight additional or confounding factors, and how niche theories might be adapted to better fit civil-society innovations. In so doing, we develop a model of grassroots innovation niche diffusion which builds on existing work and tailors it to this specific context. The paper concludes with a series of theoretically-informed recommendations for practitioners and policymakers to support the development and potential of grassroots innovations

Institutional Learning and Change: an introduction

Originally published by the International Service for National Agricultural Research as: Watts, J. R. Mackay, D. Horton, A. Hall, B. Douthwaite, R. Chambers and A. Acosta. (2003). Institutional learning and change: An introduction. ISNAR Discussion Paper No.03-10, The Hague: International Service for National Agricultural ResearchThroughout the world, the pace of environmental, social and technological change is accelerating, and this in turn has major implications for the poor and their development prospects. Traditional transfer-of-technology approaches to agricultural research can no longer keep pace with the complex, diverse, risk-prone and dynamic realities of poor farmers. If agricultural research organizations are to be more successful in reducing poverty and increasing the sustainability of agricultural production systems, they must become less isolated, more interconnected and more responsive. In so doing, they must transform themselves into learning organizations, more in touch with field realities and better able to learn and to change. Recent research on the poverty alleviating impacts of technology associated with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has identified institutional learning and change (ILAC) as a key area for intervention if research is to be more efficient and effective in serving the poor

The formation of methanol from glycerol bio-waste over doped ceria based catalysts

A series of ceria-based solid-solution metal oxides were prepared by co-precipitation and evaluated as catalysts for glycerol cleavage, principally to methanol. The catalyst activity and selectivity to methanol were investigated with respect to the reducibility of the catalysts. Oxides comprising of Ce-Pr and Ce-Zr were prepared, calcined and compared to CeO2, Pr6O11 and ZrO2. The oxygen storage capacity of the catalysts was examined with analysis of Raman spectroscopic measurements and a temperature programmed reduction, oxidation and reduction cycle. The incorporation of Pr resulted in significant defects, as evidenced by Raman spectroscopy. The materials were evaluated as catalysts for the glycerol to methanol reaction and it was found that an increased defect density or reducibility was beneficial. The space time yield of methanol normalised to surface area over CeO2 was found to be 0.052 mmolMeOH m-2 h-1 and over CeZrO2 and CePrO2 this was to 0.029 and 0.076 mmolMeOH m-2 h-1 respectively. The inclusion of Pr reduced the surface area, however, the carbon mole selectivity to methanol and ethylene glycol remained relatively high, suggesting a shift in the reaction pathway compared to that over ceria. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue “Science to enable the circular economy”

Participatory impact pathways analysis : A practical application of program theory in research-for-development

The Challenge Program on Water and Food pursues food security and poverty alleviation through the efforts of some 50 research-for-development projects. These involve almost 200 organizations working in nine river basins around the world. An approach was developed to enhance the developmental impact of the program through better impact assessment, to provide a framework for monitoring and evaluation, to permit stakeholders to derive strategic and programmatic lessons for future initiatives, and to provide information that can be used to inform public awareness efforts. The approach makes explicit a project's program theory by describing its impact pathways in terms of a logic model and network maps. A narrative combines the logic model and the network maps into a single explanatory account and adds to overall plausibility by explaining the steps in the logic model and the key risks and assumptions. Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis is based on concepts related to program theory drawn from the fields of evaluation, organizational learning, and social network analysis

Working towards an engagement turn to agricultural research in the Tonle Sap Biosphere,Cambodia

A new generation of agricultural research programs are embracing use of participation as a vehicle for achieving greater impact and supporting transformative change in complex social-ecological systems. In this paper, we share learning from use of participatory action research in the Tonle Sap biosphere in Cambodia, as the main implementing methodology within a large multi-partner agricultural research program. We describe the program’s espoused approach to applying participatory methodologies focusing on co-ownership, equity and reflexivity with stakeholders throughout the research process. We then reflect upon our practice as we pursued initiatives to support increased income and nutrition outcomes for the poorest people in a diverse aquatic agricultural system characterized by inequality. We discuss the challenges and early successes of the process and share three enabling conditions that support a shift towards quality of participation in agricultural research: (1) focusing at the outset on a strengthsbased mind-set, (2) staging a critical stance to progressively build equity in process and outcomes, and (3) institutionalizing reflexivity to facilitate ongoing learning

Characterisation of preproendothelin-1 derived peptides identifies Endothelin-Like Domain Peptide as a modulator of Endothelin-1

These studies were supported by the Medical Research Council (UK) (Grant G0801509), Community Fund of the National Lottery Charities Board, William Harvey Research Foundation and British Cardiac Research Trust. The LC-MS/MS facility was supported by Barts and the London Charity (297/2249)