Multicriteria mapping manual: version 1.0

This Manual offers basic advice on how to do multicriteria mapping (MCM). It suggests how to: go about designing and building a typical MCM project; engage with participants and analyse results – and get the most out of the online MCM tool. Key terms are shown in bold italics and defined and explained in a final Annex. The online MCM software tool provides its own operational help. So this Manual is more focused on the general approach. There are no rigid rules. MCM is structured, but very flexible. It allows many more detailed features than can be covered here. MCM users are encouraged to think for themselves and be responsible and creative

SPRU report to the SPLiCE Project: a review of 'social appraisal' methodologies

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Multicriteria mapping manual - version 2.0

Multicriteria mapping (MCM) is an interactive appraisal method for exploring contrasting perspectives on complex strategic and policy issues. The tool aims to help 'open up' technical assessment by systematically 'mapping' the practical implications of alternative options, issues, uncertainties and values. MCM uniquely bridges qualitative and quantitative approaches, and helps to get the best of both. It allows great flexibility, offering an appraisal method that is strongly grounded in theory but highly unconstrained in practice. This versatility has been reflected in its use internationally to explore contentious decisions in the fields of energy strategy, food production, environmental policy, radioactive waste management and public health. This MCM Manual offers basic advice on how to do multicriteria mapping. It suggests how to: design and build a typical MCM project; engage with participants; and analyse results – and get the most out of the online MCM tool. The online MCM software tool provides its own operational help so the manual is more focused on the general approach

[Review] A. Pollock (2019) Synthesizing hope: matter, knowledge and place in South African drug discovery

Synthesizing Hope draws on the example of iThemba pharmaceuticals, a small South African start-up company, to examine issues of place and matter in global pharmaceutical knowledge making, and their role in maintaining or disrupting differences between Global North and Global South knowledge production

[Review] Todd L Pittinsky (2019) Science, technology, and society: new perspectives and directions

This book aims at bringing together essays on the interplay between science, technology and soci-ety (STS). The essays within the book span a diver-sity of topics, including educational programs, scientific communities, technological decision-making, legal regulation, the role of users and non-users in technological development, and genetic engineering and society. The book draws from a wide range of theoretical perspectives, including psychology, sociology, organisational studies and economics. Overall, it shows a stronger emphasis on technology than on science, although some chapters focus on science or on both, and the two cannot always be disentangled

Appraising research policy instrument mixes: a multicriteria mapping study in six European countries of diagnostic innovation to manage antimicrobial resistance

This article provides prospective appraisal of key policy instruments intended to stimulate innovation to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR refers to the ability of microbes to evolve resistance to those treatments designed to kill them, and is associated with the overuse or misuse of medicines such as antibiotics. AMR is an emerging global challenge with major implications for healthcare and society as a whole. Diagnostic tests for infectious diseases can guide decision making when prescribing medicines, so reducing inappropriate drug use. In the context of growing international interest in policies to stimulate innovation in AMR diagnostics, this study uses multicriteria mapping (MCM) to appraise a range of policy instruments in order to understand their potential performance while also highlighting the uncertainties that stakeholders hold about such interventions in complex contexts. A contribution of the article is the demonstration of a novel method to analyse and visualise MCM data in order to reveal stakeholder inclinations towards particular options while exploring interviewees’ uncertainties about the effectiveness of each instrument's design or implementation. The article reports results from six European countries (Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK). The findings reveal which policy instruments are deemed most likely to perform well, and why, across stakeholder groups and national settings, with areas of common ground and difference being identified. Importantly, the conclusions presented here differ from prominent policy discourse, with international implications for the design of mixes of policy instruments to combat AMR. Strategic and practical methodological implications also emerge for general appraisal of innovation policy instrument mixes

Targeting diseases with research: benefits, limitations, cross-disease spillovers and researchers’ perspectives

EMBARGOED – expected end date 2026/02/02</p

The role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in household energy consumption - prospects for the UK

Growing concerns about climate change and energy security have led to a strong focus on energy demand reduction and energy efficiency within United Kingdom (UK) energy policy. At the same time, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become pervasive in society and this has brought with it new policy options which use them as enabling technologies. One such policy option planned for implementation in the UK is the use of smart meters and real-time displays to encourage people to become more aware of their energy consumption and possibly change their energy-related behaviours. Smart meters and display units by definition link individuals, technologies and society, and their effectiveness is influenced by a range of factors. Ten semi-structured stakeholder interviews with industry, government and academia and a review of literature were conducted in order to identify which factors are most likely to contribute to the effectiveness of implementing smart meters and real-time displays in the UK. Further analysis showed a number of key themes and perspectives on behavioural change, particularly as they relate to household electricity use and the role of smart meters in the UK energy policy, including the role of ICTs in energy demand reduction more generally

Multicriteria mapping as a problem structuring method for project front-ending

Despite high uncertainties, strongly diverging values, and often-perverse effects of powerful vested interests, large and complex projects require clear decisions to be made from the outset. Coburn and Stirling introduce multicriteria mapping (MCM) as a problem structuring method for addressing these challenges in project appraisal by engaging with key stakeholders, broadening out the scope of the project, and opening up alternative possible interpretations concerning how to proceed. From defining project goals through to analysing results, two case studies illustrate the MCM process. The resulting interlinked quantitative and qualitative information provides a broader and deeper picture than is usual. Clearly highlighting how different conditions hold contrasting practical implications for action, MCM offers a more robust basis for making decisions under circumstances of uncertainty and complexity

SPLiCE Phase 1 Significant evidence gaps on the environmental, social and economic impacts of energy system components. Output 1 from SPLICE Phase 1

Modern energy systems are extraordinarily complex including a high number of actors (e.g. government, private investors, utilities, banks, pensions funds, consumers, NGOs) driven by different objectives and operating across very different timescales. Future energy systems in a decarbonised world are likely to be at least as complex as the current energy system, as trade-offs between reduction in CO2 emissions and other important characteristics of decarbonisation unfold and demand attention from the policy-making and academic community, as well as from a more inclusive set of stakeholders. The purpose of this report is to present the results of research aimed at identifying and prioritising evidence gaps from published literature on the impacts of the most salient energy system components of a future decarbonised system. We implemented a multistep mixed methodology to produce a prioritised list of research gaps in the literature which is both comprehensive and detailed bearing in mind the resources allocated to the project