When to say what during crisis situations: experimental tests of the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) and stealing thunder

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Public Procurement of Innovation Through Increased Startup Participation: The Case of Digipolis (Research-in-progress)

Previous research has identified numerous obstacles that hinder the efficient procurement of innovation by the public sector. This paper introduces the case of Digipolis - the public ICT service provider of the City of Antwerp in Belgium. In 2015, the company implemented a comprehensive overhaul of its procurement strategy centered around 3 key components: a flexible procurement process, a community built around Digital Antwerp, and a challenge-oriented company culture. The case adopts a holistic perspective on the implementation of innovation procurement in a local public sector organization, and investigates the specific conditions and mechanisms that allowed to leverage the Antwerp startup community in order to increase the number of purchased innovative solutions. The case also sheds light on how public procurement of innovation can lead to knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship - an area that is still largely undiscovered

Naar een open innovatiemodel in Vlaamse steden en gemeenten

Steden en gemeenten staan voor belangrijke uitdagingen. Ondanks budgettaire restricties, wordt in toenemende mate verwacht dat de publieke sector digitaal leiderschap neemt. Digitalisering wordt beschouwd als een belangrijk instrument voor een slimme overheid met een publieke dienstverlening die offline en online elementen naadloos integreert. Nieuwe digitale technologieën, zoals blockchain of artificiële intelligentie, bieden bovendien belangrijke opportuniteiten om de efficiëntie en responsiviteit van de overheid te verbeteren. Het uitbouwen van een digitaal getransformeerde overheid, die ook inzet op andere maatschappelijke thema’s zoals duurzaamheid, is een heuse uitdaging. “No matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else.” –Bill Joy (Wet van Joy) Open innovatie kan een belangrijke katalysator zijn om de opportuniteiten van zulke transformaties in de overheid te verzilveren. Open innovatie start vanuit de erkenning dat innovatieve kennis wijdverspreid is in de samenleving, en verwijst naar het openen van de interne innovatieprocessen naar externe kennisbronnen. Door zich strategisch te positioneren in een innovatie-ecosysteem kan de overheid gebruik maken van kennis die buiten de organisatiegrenzen aanwezig is om haar maatschappelijke rol beter te volbrengen. Open innoveren verschuift de rol van overheden van probleemoplosser naar oplossingszoeker – eerder dan problemen te lijf te gaan met enkel de interne middelen, wordt een oplossing gezocht door gebruik te maken van innovatieve kennis die intern én extern aanwezig is. Het aanboren van zulke externe kennis omvat veelal een brede groep innovatieve actoren die in het verleden niet of weinig in contact kwamen met overheidsorganisaties, zoals startups, KMOs/MKBs, niet-gouvernementele organisaties en burgers. KEY TAKEAWAY: Belangrijke uitdagingen voor steden en gemeenten kunnen best worden aangegaan door externe innovatieve actoren te betrekken. Een ecosysteem-visie op innovatie laat toe om zowel interne als externe kennis in te zetten

Erasmus Mundus Master of Bioethics: a case for an effective model for international bioethics education

Designing bioethics curriculum for international postgraduate students is a challenging task. There are at least two main questions, which have to be resolved in advance: (1) what is a purpose of a particular teaching program and (2) how to respectfully arrange a classroom for students coming from different cultural and professional backgrounds. In our paper we analyze the case of the Erasmus Mundus Master of Bioethics program and provide recommendations for international bioethics education. In our opinion teaching bioethics to postgraduate international students goes beyond curriculum. It means that such a program requires not only well-defined goals, including equipping students with necessary skills and knowledge, but also it should first and foremost facilitate positive group dynamics among students and enables them to engage in dialogue to learn from one another

The Effects of Combined Exposure to Simulated Microgravity, Ionizing Radiation, and Cortisol on the In Vitro Wound Healing Process

Human spaceflight is associated with several health-related issues as a result of long-term exposure to microgravity, ionizing radiation, and higher levels of psychological stress. Frequent reported skin problems in space include rashes, itches, and a delayed wound healing. Access to space is restricted by financial and logistical issues; as a consequence, experimental sample sizes are often small, which limits the generalization of the results. Earth-based simulation models can be used to investigate cellular responses as a result of exposure to certain spaceflight stressors. Here, we describe the development of an in vitro model of the simulated spaceflight environment, which we used to investigate the combined effect of simulated microgravity using the random positioning machine (RPM), ionizing radiation, and stress hormones on the wound-healing capacity of human dermal fibroblasts. Fibroblasts were exposed to cortisol, after which they were irradiated with different radiation qualities (including X-rays, protons, carbon ions, and iron ions) followed by exposure to simulated microgravity using a random positioning machine (RPM). Data related to the inflammatory, proliferation, and remodeling phase of wound healing has been collected. Results show that spaceflight stressors can interfere with the wound healing process at any phase. Moreover, several interactions between the different spaceflight stressors were found. This highlights the complexity that needs to be taken into account when studying the effect of spaceflight stressors on certain biological processes and for the aim of countermeasures development

Current Research into Applications of Tomography for Fusion Diagnostics

Retrieving spatial distribution of plasma emissivity from line integrated measurements on tokamaks presents a challenging task due to ill-posedness of the tomography problem and limited number of the lines of sight. Modern methods of plasma tomography therefore implement a-priori information as well as constraints, in particular some form of penalisation of complexity. In this contribution, the current tomography methods under development (Tikhonov regularisation, Bayesian methods and neural networks) are briefly explained taking into account their potential for integration into the fusion reactor diagnostics. In particular, current development of the Minimum Fisher Regularisation method is exemplified with respect to real-time reconstruction capability, combination with spectral unfolding and other prospective tasks