A framework for the management of research and innovation projects: mission impossible?

The shift from discipline-based research (“mode 1”) to interdisciplinary knowledge production involving industry or service partnerships and increased social accountability (“mode 2”) have led to deep changes in the organizational structure of research and innovation (R&I) ecosystems. In particular, public researchperforming organizations have been re-shaping their management and organizational structures towards a more market-oriented direction, with a strong executive control approach also known as ‘New managerialism’. Also, since the 1990s, R&I organizations have increasingly adopted collaborative research projects, seeking access to complementary knowledge and competencies, additional drive to innovate, and increasing funding opportunities (regional, national and supranational). In this type of environment, consortia of public, academic, and private agents that share a common research interest work across disciplinary, organizational, and national boundaries to achieve innovative results.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and European Regional Development Fund under Programme PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020), and to Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020) for funding provided to the project “ValorNatural – Valorização de Recursos Naturais através da Extração de Ingredientes de Elevado Valor Acrescentado para Aplicações na Indústria Alimentar” (NORTE-01-0247-FEDER-024479), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A framework for the management of research and innovation projects: mission impossible?

The shift from discipline-based research (“mode 1”) to interdisciplinary knowledge production involving industry or service partnerships and increased social accountability (“mode 2”) have led to deep changes in the organizational structure of research and innovation (R&I) ecosystems. In particular, public researchperforming organizations have been re-shaping their management and organizational structures towards a more market-oriented direction, with a strong executive control approach also known as ‘New managerialism’. Also, since the 1990s, R&I organizations have increasingly adopted collaborative research projects, seeking access to complementary knowledge and competencies, additional drive to innovate, and increasing funding opportunities (regional, national and supranational). In this type of environment, consortia of public, academic, and private agents that share a common research interest work across disciplinary, organizational, and national boundaries to achieve innovative results. Under “mode 2” R&I projects, managers must integrate individual and small-team research activities that demand high levels of creativity and innovation. However, funding bodies and institutions require clear work plans, perfectly defined and assigned responsibilities, and strict schedules, deliverables and milestones. This apparent contradiction calls for flexible and adaptable project management principles. In fact, “traditional” management strategies, such as pure “waterfall” methods tend to fail. Success or failure of contemporary R&I endeavours is, therefore, strongly linked to the project management practices adopted by institutions and teams along a collaborative and “open” context under which new knowledge and technologies are nowadays developed. The contextual complexity, uncertainty and creative nature of R&I does definitely not mean that no structure, no planning and no management is neither necessary nor possible. But it does mean that the way we organize and manage research projects should reflect and aim to accommodate this ambiguity and complexity. By presenting, assessing and discussing the case study of ValorNatural, a project funded by the Portuguese government under the country framework programme 2014-2020 of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), the authors propose a framework for the successful management of R&I projects. To this aim, the research methodology is based on action research, participatory observation and on the own experience of the authors. This framework should be seen as a practical tool for scientific projects managers. It seeks to provide a structured, comprehensive overview of key pillars that should underpin the development and implementation of project management to R&I endeavours. We conclude that (i) R&I projects substantially differ from “traditional” projects, (ii) R&I projects are characterized by high uncertainty, high contextual complexity, and high stakeholder heterogeneity, (iii) R&I projects are conditioned by the observed strong mismatch between the flexibility requested to researchers in the pre-award phase and the rigidity demanded by the funding agencies during the post-award phase, and (iv) adequate R&I project management helps avoid common pitfalls and improve project success. Learning Outcomes (max 50 words) - R&I projects substantially differ from “traditional” projects. - Key features: high uncertainty, high contextual complexity and high stakeholder heterogeneity. - R&I projects are conditioned by a mismatch between flexibility in the pre-award phase and rigidity during the post-award phase. - Adequate R&I project management helps avoid common pitfalls and improve success.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Electron Emission of Pt: Experimental Study and Comparison With Models in the Multipactor Energy Range

"(c) 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works."Experimental data of secondary emission yield (SEY) and electron emission spectra of Pt under electron irradiation for normal incidence and primary energies lower than 1 keV are presented. Several relevant magnitudes, as total SEY, elastic backscattering probability, secondary emission spectrum, and backscattering coefficient, are given for different primary energies. These magnitudes are compared with theoretical or semiempiricalThis work was supported in part by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad under Project TEC2013-47037-C5-4-R, and in part by MICIIN through the Space Programme under Project AYA2012-39832-C02-01/02. The review of this paper was arranged by Editor M. Thumm.Bronchalo, E.; Coves, A.; Mata Sanz, R.; Gimeno Martinez, B.; Montero, I.; Galán, L.; Boria Esbert, VE.... (2016). Electron Emission of Pt: Experimental Study and Comparison With Models in the Multipactor Energy Range. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices. 63(8):3270-3277. https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2016.2580199S3270327763

Basal oxidation of conserved cysteines modulates cardiac titin stiffness and dynamics

Titin, as the main protein responsible for the passive stiffness of the sarcomere, plays a key role in diastolic function and is a determinant factor in the etiology of heart disease. Titin stiffness depends on unfolding and folding transitions of immunoglobulin-like (Ig) domains of the I-band, and recent studies have shown that oxidative modifications of cryptic cysteines belonging to these Ig domains modulate their mechanical properties in vitro. However, the relevance of this mode of titin mechanical modulation in vivo remains largely unknown. Here, we describe the high evolutionary conservation of titin mechanical cysteines and show that they are remarkably oxidized in murine cardiac tissue. Mass spectrometry analyses indicate a similar landscape of basal oxidation in murine and human myocardium. Monte Carlo simulations illustrate how disulfides and S-thiolations on these cysteines increase the dynamics of the protein at physiological forces, while enabling load- and isoform-dependent regulation of titin stiffness. Our results demonstrate the role of conserved cysteines in the modulation of titin mechanical properties in vivo and point to potential redox-based pathomechanisms in heart disease.This work was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación grants BIO2014-54768-P, BIO2017-83640-P, RYC-2014-16604 to JAC and PGC2018-097019-B-I00 to JV, the Regional Government of Madrid grants S2018/NMT-4443 and PEJ16/MED/TL-1593 to JAC and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria grant PRB3 (PT17/0019/0003- ISCIII-SGEFI /ERDF, ProteoRed), and “la Caixa” Banking Foundation (project code HR17-00247) to JV. We acknowledge funding from the European Research Area Network on Cardiovascular Disease through grant MINOTAUR to SS (The Austrian Science Fund – FWF, I3301) and JAC (ISCIII-AC16/00045). The CNIC is supported by ISCIII, the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and the Pro CNIC Foundation, and was a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (SEV-2015-0505). IMM was the recipient of a CNIC-ACCIONA Masters Fellowship and holds a fellowship from “La Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434, fellowship code LCF/BQ/DR20/11790009). CSC is the recipient of an FPI-SO predoctoral fellowship BES-2016-076638. We thank Wolfgang A. Linke and Pablo García-Pavía for critical feedback. We are also thankful for the insights of three anonymous reviewers.S

Investment in the long-tail of biodiversity data: from local research to global knowledge

In business, the "long-tail economy" refers to a market strategy where the gravity center shifts from a few high-demand products to many, varied products focused on small niches. Commercialization of individually low-demand products can be profitable as long as their production cost is low and, all taken together, they aggregate into a big chunk of the market. Similarly, in the "business" of biodiversity data acquisition, we can find several mainstream products that produce zillions of bits of information every year and account for most of the budget allocated to increase our primary data-based knowledge about Earth's biological diversity. These products play a crucial role in biodiversity research. However, along with these large global projects, there is a constellation of small-scale institutions that work locally, but whose contribution to our understanding of natural processes should not be dismissed. These information datasets can be collectively referred to as the "long-tail biodiversity data"

Genetic landscape of 6089 inherited retinal dystrophies affected cases in Spain and their therapeutic and extended epidemiological implications

Inherited retinal diseases (IRDs), defined by dysfunction or progressive loss of photoreceptors, are disorders characterized by elevated heterogeneity, both at the clinical and genetic levels. Our main goal was to address the genetic landscape of IRD in the largest cohort of Spanish patients reported to date. A retrospective hospital-based cross-sectional study was carried out on 6089 IRD affected individuals (from 4403 unrelated families), referred for genetic testing from all the Spanish autonomous communities. Clinical, demographic and familiar data were collected from each patient, including family pedigree, age of appearance of visual symptoms, presence of any systemic findings and geographical origin. Genetic studies were performed to the 3951 families with available DNA using different molecular techniques. Overall, 53.2% (2100/3951) of the studied families were genetically characterized, and 1549 different likely causative variants in 142 genes were identified. The most common phenotype encountered is retinitis pigmentosa (RP) (55.6% of families, 2447/4403). The most recurrently mutated genes were PRPH2, ABCA4 and RS1 in autosomal dominant (AD), autosomal recessive (AR) and X-linked (XL) NON-RP cases, respectively; RHO, USH2A and RPGR in AD, AR and XL for non-syndromic RP; and USH2A and MYO7A in syndromic IRD. Pathogenic variants c.3386G > T (p.Arg1129Leu) in ABCA4 and c.2276G > T (p.Cys759Phe) in USH2A were the most frequent variants identified. Our study provides the general landscape for IRD in Spain, reporting the largest cohort ever presented. Our results have important implications for genetic diagnosis, counselling and new therapeutic strategies to both the Spanish population and other related populations.This work was supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) of the Spanish Ministry of Health (FIS; PI16/00425 and PI19/00321), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Raras (CIBERER, 06/07/0036), IIS-FJD BioBank (PT13/0010/0012), Comunidad de Madrid (CAM, RAREGenomics Project, B2017/BMD-3721), European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), the Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (ONCE), Fundación Ramón Areces, Fundación Conchita Rábago and the University Chair UAM-IIS-FJD of Genomic Medicine. Irene Perea-Romero is supported by a PhD fellowship from the predoctoral Program from ISCIII (FI17/00192). Ionut F. Iancu is supported by a grant from the Comunidad de Madrid (CAM, PEJ-2017-AI/BMD7256). Marta del Pozo-Valero is supported by a PhD grant from the Fundación Conchita Rábago. Berta Almoguera is supported by a Juan Rodes program from ISCIII (JR17/00020). Pablo Minguez is supported by a Miguel Servet program from ISCIII (CP16/00116). Marta Corton is supported by a Miguel Servet program from ISCIII (CPII17/00006). The funders played no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, manuscript preparation and/or publication decisions

A novel and unique protein N-glycosylation pathway in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

International audienc

A novel and unique protein N-glycosylation pathway in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

International audienc

Correction to: A Phase II Study Evaluating Combined Neoadjuvant Cetuximab and Chemotherapy Followed by Chemoradiotherapy and Concomitant Cetuximab in Locoregional Oesophageal Cancer Patients.

Errors were subsequently identified in the article and the following corrections should be noted

Schuurs-Hoeijmakers syndrome (PACS1 neurodevelopmental disorder): seven novel patients and a review

Schuurs-Hoeijmakers syndrome (SHMS) or PACS1 Neurodevelopmental disorder is a rare disorder characterized by intellectual disability, abnormal craniofacial features and congenital malformations. SHMS is an autosomal dominant hereditary disease caused by pathogenic variants in the PACS1 gene. PACS1 is a trans-Golgi-membrane traffic regulator that directs protein cargo and several viral envelope proteins. It is upregulated during human embryonic brain development and has low expression after birth. So far, only 54 patients with SHMS have been reported. In this work, we report on seven new identified SHMS individuals with the classical c.607C > T: p.Arg206Trp PACS1 pathogenic variant and review clinical and molecular aspects of all the patients reported in the literature, providing a summary of clinical findings grouped as very frequent (≥75% of patients), frequent (50-74%), infrequent (26-49%) and rare (less than ≤25%)