Creating and Managing EU Funded Research Networks: An Exploratory Case

The collaborative European funded research and development landscape drives competitiveness among innovative organisations. Recently it has seen the rise of public private partnerships significantly impacting the dynamics of these networks. Thus, the complexity of managing research networks has intensified with the increased diversity of research network members. Additionally, the emergence of the academic entrepreneur has augmented the focus of educational institutions to include innovation and building start-up organisations. The impact of research is scalable if an optimum research network is created and managed effectively. This paper investigates network embeddedness; the nature of relationships, links and nodes within a research network, specifically their structure, configuration and quality. The contribution of this paper extends our understanding for establishing and maintaining effective collaborative research networks. The effects of network embeddedness are recognized in the literature as pertinent to innovation and the economy. Network theory literature claims that networks are essential to innovative clusters such as Silicon valley and innovation in high tech industries. The concept of embeddedness is what differentiates network theory from economic theory. This study adopts a qualitative approach and uncovers some of the challenges of multi-disciplinary research through case study insights. One challenge is competition between network members over ownership and sharing of data. The contribution of this paper recommends the establishment of scaffolding to accommodate cooperation in research networks, role appointment, and addressing contextual complexities early to avoid problem cultivation. Furthermore, it suggests recommendations in relation to network formation, incubation and operations. The network capability is enhanced by the recognition of network theory, open innovation and social exchange with the understanding that the network structure has an impact on innovation and social exchange in research networks and subsequently on research output. The research concludes that the success of collaborative research is reliant upon establishing a common language and understanding between network members to realise their research objectives.

World-level ecologists in Chile: Oldtimers, newcomers, and the bypassed

Background A team of 3 scientometrists led by John Ioannidis published in 2020 an extensive and updated database (ca. 6.9 million researchers in 22 disciplines and 176 sub-disciplines), ordering them according to a composite bibliometric index that measures their whole trajectory (career-long) impact and their annual impact at year 2019. They reported the top 100,000 scientists (1.45% across all disciplinary fields) or the top 2% of each subfield discipline, thus publishing the ranking of ca. 150,000 researchers worldwide. Methods and findings We filtered that information for the disciplinary and sub-disciplinary areas corresponding to Ecology and identified a total of 14 ecologists with residence in Chile that appear in either of those two worldwide rankings. We report their measured productivity as both whole trajectory (career-long) and as annual impact at year 2019. We attribute their high registered productivity to their training at the doctoral level in prestigious foreign universities, their academic positions in internationally recognized Chilean universities, and their participation in state-funded research centers of scientific excellence. Exceptions to the rule are presented. Conclusions The 14 ecologists identified with the scientometric algorithm proposed by Ioannidis and coworkers include, but are not restricted, to the most cited ecologists in Chile. We put forth possible reasons for some puzzling omissions from these rankings.

REASSEMBLING TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN INDONESIA

This article aims to provide a dynamic picture of the technology transfer process in public research institutions in Indonesia that has been updated by establishing the National Research and Innovation Agency in August 2021. This body is directly under the President of the Republic of Indonesia based on Presidential Regulation number 78 of 2021. During the research period, there was a change in the landscape of technology transfer actors. Some of these changes are in line with the results of the analysis, namely increasing the role of GFRI and research and development agencies under the ministry. This change is referred to as technology transfer reassembly. The arrangement of technology transfer leads to a new form. The research was initiated in October 2017 using the AHP to determine the best institutional arrangement for integrating research. The AHP results show the rank of institutional arrangements from highest to lowest as Government Funded Research Institutes (GFRI) (0.27833), a research division under the Ministerial Office (0.24890), universities (0.17966), private R&D (0.13589) and foreign agencies (0.07214). Government Funded Research Institutes are the top choice of experts for having a significant role in the technology transfer process. The core function of GFRI in the technology transfer system is to plan, conduct and develop technology and they have contributed significantly to the policy-making process by providing information and policy recommendations. This research enriched the application of the recommendations by establishing the National Research and Innovation Agency as the most influential actor in building a national technology transfer system.

Ethnographies of Drug Dealers

This chapter examines how ethnographers and qualitative researchers have described drug dealers. Written as an interview, the chapter touches on many of the themes and tropes that have characterized the literature about drug dealers, including their propensity to violence, their hedonism, the apparent increase in the number of women in the business, their problematic family lives, and their lack of attachment to the workforce. The chapter explains how research funding that prioritized drug dealers at the bottom of the economic hierarchy and overlooked those at the top has sometimes led to peculiar characterizations of drug dealers and particular kinds of explanatory frameworks that are often rooted in thin subcultural soil. Ethnography about drug dealers in the service of government-funded research has transformed the field from ones dominated by individuals who conducted community studies to one where ethnographers work as part of a team to produce narrow findings that supplement, contextualize, and help explain survey data. Going forward, the ethnography of drug dealers will benefit from greater awareness of the importance of reflexivity in the field and from partnerships that enrich our understanding and act as a corrective to our individual myopic perspectives.

Exploring the Factors Affecting Technology Transfer in Government-Funded Research Institutes: The Korean Case

Based on the resource dependence theory and the resource-based view, this study examined the impact of the resources and capabilities of government-funded research institutes (GRIs) on technology transfer. Panel analysis was performed on 21 GRIs in South Korea representing three mission types—basic future leading, public infrastructure, and industrialization—for the 2015–2019 period. The analysis confirmed that the factors affecting technology transfer performance differed among GRIs depending on their mission type. For basic future leading GRIs, the number of technology transfer cases was strongly associated with the number of research personnel, while there was a negative relationship between technology transfer and the total budget, the number of research publications, and the number of patent registrations. None of the variables affected the revenue from technology fees. Researchers at these GRIs appear to have a strong motivation for technology transfer, but the priority for resource allocation at the institutional level is the production of papers and patents rather than technology transfer. For public infrastructure GRIs, the number of patents held and the number of technology licensing office (TLO) personnel had a positive impact on the number of technology transfer cases, while none of the variables affected the revenue from technology fees. Thus, the number of patents is more favorable for technology transfer at this type of GRI compared to those that pursue a mission of basic future leading, possibly because their research focus is more related to engineering than to basic science. For industrialization GRIs, the number of TLO personnel affected the number of cases of technology transfer, and the number of patent registrations and TLO personnel affected the revenue from technology fees. The speed of technology development and industrial application is thus much faster in industrialization GRIs than in the other GRI types. The results of this analysis show that mission attributes are important drivers of technology transfer performance. This study thus offers policy implications by illustrating those different resources should be provided to different types of GRI to optimize their technology transfer performance.