Month: September 2016

In this paper, we use insights from science studies to elucidate the nature of advisory science in the context of disasters, particularly those involving geophysical hazards. We argue that there are some key differences between disaster advisory science and the issues that are most discussed in science studies: they are both time- and space-specific and they constitute major social, economic and scientific shocks. We suggest that disasters require flexible advisory structures that maximise the co-production of science and social order, and present a framework for this. We argue that the aim of increasing resilience to natural hazards requires that sociology of scientific knowledge play a part in the application of scientific advice: disaster studies has focused on the reduction of vulnerability as a reaction against technical-rational models of scientific advice, but in doing so has restricted the potential role of the social sciences in the framing of scientific advice and expertise.

The past two decades have seen an increase in the use of funding schemes such as ‘centres of excellence’. This paper examines how centre of excellence schemes have been adapted to two distinct national public research systems (Norway and Sweden) and the role of the schemes in the systems. It develops a conceptual framework involving three impact dimensions of the centres: organisational, social and international. Together with principal–agent theory the conceptual framework is used to investigate and explain which dimensions are given the most emphasis in the two countries. The main findings are that, in a country with a highly competitive funding system (Sweden), funding agencies emphasise organisational impact to overcome the problem of moral hazard, while a country characterised by relatively high block grant funding of the universities (Norway) tends to emphasise international impact, and invests in strategies to overcome the problem of adverse selection.

We explore the impact of organizational size in six federally funded research organizations on a range of organizational processes related to the pursuit of innovation. The data utilized consisted of 266 scientists drawn from 64 research projects across five programmatic research areas: alternative energies, biology, chemistry, geophysical sciences, and material sciences. A sixth project category was added to accommodate the highly interdisciplinary character of a handful of projects. Although the data had some limitations, it was found that organizational size had a negative impact on three categories of innovation processes: the amount of time spent in research and professional activities, how research time is spent, and exchanges of technical knowledge. In addition, some potential advantages of larger size, such as: greater research resources, better perceived managerial quality or a visionary strategy, were not found to be significant.

This article addresses the patterns of gender and temporary international research visits among researchers, using data from a population of 10,349 Spanish doctorate holders in nine research fields. It analyzes rates of international mobility, and the frequency, duration, and destinations of temporary visits, by gender, with implications for scientific careers. We find that in their overall rates of mobility across fields, women are more internationally mobile than men. But compared to men: first, women’s frequency of international visits is lower; second, their visits occur at earlier ages and stages in their careers; third, their visits are shorter; and finally, their destinations are closer to home. Given the paucity of empirical research on gender and international research mobility, the patterns reported here are sound data points for continuing comparative, cross-national investigations, and point to consequential considerations for gender equity and science and public policy.

In this paper we examine the relationship between research performance, age, and seniority in academic rank of full professors in the Italian academic system. Differently from a large part of the literature, our results generally show a negative monotonic relationship between age and research performance, in all the disciplines under analysis. We also highlight a positive relationship between seniority in rank and performance, occurring particularly in certain disciplines. While in medicine, biology, and chemistry this result could be explained by the ‘accumulative advantage’ effect, in other disciplines, like civil engineering, and pedagogy and psychology, it could be due to the existence of a large performance differential between young and mature researchers, at the moment of the promotion to full professors. These results, witnessed both generally and at the level of the individual disciplines, offer useful insights for policy makers and administrators in academia on the role of older professors.

In China the use of public procurement as an innovation policy instrument has been closely associated with the drive to promote indigenous innovation. Implementation was largely through the use of catalogues intended to signal and to formally accredit the supply and demand of technologically-oriented products. This paper reviews these experiences by examining the wider context and three case studies. Accreditation is shown to carry a risk of protectionism. Signaling performs a function analogous to a technology roadmap and was assisted by giving listed technologies priority for public procurement. For both types of instrument the intended mechanism did not work as planned but the broader role they sought to fill was an important factor in bringing innovations to market. The appropriateness and effectiveness of such instruments are shown to be dependent upon the state of both the innovation and the procurement systems in which they are set.