Horizon scanning the European bio-based economy:A novel approach to identification of barriers and key policy interventions from stakeholders in multiple sectors and regions

There is international recognition that developing a climate-smart bioeconomy is essential to the continuation of economic development, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and adaptation to climatic change; Bio-based products have an important role in making this transition happen. Supporting policy interventions have been put forward at European and national levels to support innovation and development of bio-based products and services. This study asks whether suggested policy interventions reflect the needs of stakeholders and examines how these needs vary between European regions. This consultation was performed through an online survey of 447 experts actively involved in bio-based research, industry, and governance across Europe. The majority of responses received were from stakeholders in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK which are examined in greater depth. Climate change was clearly an important driver for bio-based innovation as 86% of the respondents considered climate change to be a significant threat. There were clear differences between regions but also areas of consensus between stakeholders across the European regions surveyed. In particular there was consensus regarding the need for improved access to financial support and the need to ensure continuity of policy. The need to build investor confidence through demonstration of bio-based technologies, the provision of greater clarity regarding best conversion routes for specific feedstocks, and the need to promote a culture of industrial symbiosis were also regarded as important interventions

Critical analysis of Big Data Challenges and analytical methods

Big Data (BD), with their potential to ascertain valued insights for enhanced decision-making process, have recently attracted substantial interest from both academics and practitioners. Big Data Analytics (BDA) is increasingly becoming a trending practice that many organizations are adopting with the purpose of constructing valuable information from BD. The analytics process, including the deployment and use of BDA tools, is seen by organizations as a tool to improve operational efficiency though it has strategic potential, drive new revenue streams and gain competitive advantages over business rivals. However, there are different types of analytic applications to consider. Therefore, prior to hasty use and buying costly BD tools, there is a need for organizations to first understand the BDA landscape. Given the significant nature of the BD and BDA, this paper presents a state-of-the-art review that presents a holistic view of the BD challenges and BDA methods theorized/proposed/employed by organizations to help others understand this landscape with the objective of making robust investment decisions. In doing so, systematically analysing and synthesizing the extant research published on BD and BDA area. More specifically, the authors seek to answer the following two principal questions: Q1 – What are the different types of BD challenges theorized/proposed/confronted by organizations? and Q2 – What are the different types of BDA methods theorized/proposed/employed to overcome BD challenges?. This systematic literature review (SLR) is carried out through observing and understanding the past trends and extant patterns/themes in the BDA research area, evaluating contributions, summarizing knowledge, thereby identifying limitations, implications and potential further research avenues to support the academic community in exploring research themes/patterns. Thus, to trace the implementation of BD strategies, a profiling method is employed to analyze articles (published in English-speaking peer-reviewed journals between 1996 and 2015) extracted from the Scopus database. The analysis presented in this paper has identified relevant BD research studies that have contributed both conceptually and empirically to the expansion and accrual of intellectual wealth to the BDA in technology and organizational resource management discipline

Data Management in Astrobiology: Challenges and Opportunities for an Interdisciplinary Community

Data management and sharing are growing concerns for scientists and funding organizations throughout the world. Funding organizations are implementing requirements for data management plans, while scientists are establishing new infrastructures for data sharing. One of the difficulties is sharing data among a diverse set of research disciplines. Astrobiology is a unique community of researchers, containing over 110 different disciplines. The current study reports the results of a survey of data management practices among scientists involved in the astrobiology community and the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) in particular. The survey was administered over a 2-month period in the first half of 2013. Fifteen percent of the NAI community responded (n=114), and additional (n=80) responses were collected from members of an astrobiology Listserv. The results of the survey show that the astrobiology community shares many of the same concerns for data sharing as other groups. The benefits of data sharing are acknowledged by many respondents, but barriers to data sharing remain, including lack of acknowledgement, citation, time, and institutional rewards. Overcoming technical, institutional, and social barriers to data sharing will be a challenge into the future. Key Words: Data management—Data sharing—Data preservation. Astrobiology 14, 451–461