Worlds Apart? A Comparison of the New Product Development Strategies of Biopharmaceutical Firms in Europe and the USA (journal article)
By Tianjiao Xia and Stephen Roper
from Industry & Innovation Vol 16 Iss 6 Dec 2009, pp. 593 - 612
"Globally the biopharmaceutical industry is characterized by strong competition, research-intensive and protracted new product development (NPD) processes, intensive regulation and extensive alliance activity. Policy regimes and operating environments differ markedly, however. Here we examine how these differences impact on the NPD strategies of biopharmaceutical firms in the USA and three major EU economies (the UK, France and Germany). Our analysis suggests four key differences between firms' NPD strategies in the two areas. First, while levels of R&D intensity and continuity are broadly similar in the two areas, US firms have notably stronger patent profiles, and are significantly more active in technology licensing than their European counterparts. Second, product development cycles are significantly longer in the USA than among our European respondents. Third, the nature of the product development pipeline is very different in the USA and the major European economies covered by our study: US firms conduct early stage development of more compounds than European firms but take only a similar number to market. Fourth, we see broadly similar levels of alliance activity in our US and European respondents at both the early and late stages of the NPD process. These results suggest a greater substitution of “market” for “hierarchy” in US firms' NPD strategies, reflecting differences in the availability and structure of government support in the USA and Europe."
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
Monday, 21 December 2009
Friday, 18 December 2009
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Welcome to the City Planning Blog
Brisbane is a growing city which, according to the State’s SEQ Regional Plan, must accommodate 138,000 additional dwellings through in-fill development, by 2031.
Brisbane City Council’s City Planning branch is working hard to plan for our City’s heart, inner city and outer suburbs so they remain places in which people love to live, work and play.
The City Planning Blog was established to enable us to provide Brisbane residents and the development community with regular updates as to the latest planning news and information. Not only will it provide urban planning news, but will showcase landscape architecture and interesting developments from around the world.
Innovation practices within small to medium-sized mechanically-based manufacturers (journal article)
by Glenn Brophy and Steve Brown
from Innovation: management, policy and practice, Vol 11 No. 3, 2009
"Manufacturing SMEs remain an underdeveloped area of interest in the literature on innovation. SMEs whose principal skill sets are mechanical in nature (MechSMEs) and that serve multiple customer groups offer a particularly rich context for the study of innovation practices that are mostly under the control of the firm's managers. This empirically-based paper uses case studies based on multiple units of analysis within each firm so that the overall innovation practices of four mature firms (average firm age 45 years, minimum 20 years) and the practices used within thirteen specific innovations (both product and process innovations) were studied. This combination of studying firm-specific and innovation-specific practices was used to construct a picture of the most important innovation practices within each firm." (Ask us if you'd like the full text of this article).
Creating the engineering nation 2030 (journal article)
by Chris Fitzhardinge
from ATSE Focus, December 2009
"Engineering needs to be regarded as a pivotal career in promoting world amenity and productivity and has to communicate its role. ... Overseas-trained engineers will be an important component of engineering capability comprising half of our engineers in 2030. Much of our future engineering capability will have multiple qualifications, including Masters in Engineering. The relationship with India and China will dominate our economy. The maturing of the urbanisation of China and the one-child policy may see India assume a predominant role in influencing our economic future. Australians will continue to see the world as their source of education, entertainment and employment"
Two overarching priorities for STEM education (journal article)
by Lesley Parker and Adrian Egan
from ATSE Focus, December 2009
"A number of directions for the future emerged at the recent academy seminar, Science and Engineering Education: Towards 2030.These ranged from early childhood to adult learning, from quality of education to meeting a high and increasing workforce demand for engineers and scientists and from motivating individual students to shifting public perceptions of mathematics, science, technology and engineering – the enjoyment they provide and the roles they play in meeting community aspirations. Many of these directions are inter-related but, overall, they can be considered in four categories – wider society, students, teachers/lecturers/academics and industry. "
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
The importance of the 'international collaboration dividend': the case of China (journal article)
By David Tyfield, Yongguan Zhu and Jinghua Cao
from Science and Public Policy Volume 36, No. 9 Nov 2009, pp. 723-735
"The international standing of Chinese science has improved at an extraordinary rate in the last two decades, prompting fears among some commentators in the global North. Against such positions, this paper argues: first, that the continuing limitations of Chinese science show it is most unlikely to dominate global science imminently; and second, that the rise of Chinese science is, in any case, a trend that is greatly to be welcomed, with the potential to benefit everybody. In particular, regarding the simple advance of science and the tackling of unprecedented global problems, both Chinese science per se and international collaboration with Chinese researchers are crucial. Furthermore, such collaboration has demonstrable mutual benefits, yielding an 'international collaboration dividend' of increased impact and quality of research for all parties."
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
Monday, 14 December 2009
The Future of Nanomedicine (journal article)
By Robert A Freitas Jr
from Futurist Vol. 44 Issue 1 Jan/Feb 2010, p21-22
"The article focuses on the use of nanotechnology in the medical treatment of various diseases in the U.S. It states that the technology utilizes nanomachines and one-billionth of a meter robot which would repair the damaged tissues of the human body at a molecular level. It mentions that nanomedicine will replace the expensive surgical treatment of certain diseases. In addition, nanotechnology also reduces the rate of premature deaths due to postoperative complications. It also emphasizes the establishment of the Nanofactory Collaboration founded by Ralph Merkle."
Information Technology and the Economics of Storing, Spreading and Generating Knowledge (journal article)
By Peter E. Earl
from Prometheus Vol 27 Iss 4 Dec 2009, pp. 389 - 401
"This paper examines the future for the growth and transmission of knowledge with a particular focus on the collision between the zero-marginal-cost economics of online publishing and the finite attention spans of those who download content. The paper tries to show that while it is likely that the information revolution will produce much greater equality of access to knowledge, its impacts on the efficiency with which people pick up capabilities or generate new knowledge remain debatable."
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
Friday, 4 December 2009
Boomtown 2050 : scenarios for a rapidly growing city [book]
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Author: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
"Addresses key climate policy issues including: an ideal set of climate policy tools; the size of the economic and environmental costs of incomplete country or sector coverage of climate change mitigation policies; how to concretely develop a global carbon market; the case for, and what can we reasonably expect from, R&D and technology support policies; and the incentives for major emitting countries to join a climate change mitigation agreement." - abstract.
Thursday, 26 November 2009
The Changing Nature of Global Innovation and Competitiveness (journal article)
By Scott Andes
from Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Policy Issue
"In this article for Future’s Magazine ITIF research analyst Scott Andes discusses the findings of the Atlantic Century and how globalization is redefining competition and the importance of innovation."
An integrated model for business process measurement (journal article)
By Vincent C. Yen
from Business Process Management Journal Vol 15 Iss 6 2009, pp. 865 - 875
"Research in the evaluation of business processes (BPs) seems to have missed those of BP modeling techniques. Past studies on evaluations have focused in most cases on a single objective or goal of a BP using quantitative performance measures or qualitative surveys. In this paper, an approach that combines all relevant single purpose measures (relevant to the goals of the BP) into one overall measure is proposed. The overall measure will reflect all stakeholders' perspective and preference ratings on the attributes/criterion of the BP in question. The conceptual model is supported by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology."
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
The Blue Revolution (journal article)
by Colin Chartres
from Australasian Science, December 2009
"Water scarcity is going to be one of the critical limitations on agricultural production and our ability to feed the growing world population. However, the overall productivity of water use can be increased to help cope with increasing food demand."
Harvest Fare (article)
by Fran Molloy
from Fast Thinking, November 16 2009
Fran Molloy looks at the little picture on energy - harvesting micro amounts - that could change the world:
"Since humans recognised that wind and water and the sun were generating energy, we have been trying to harvest it, through such things as windmills and waterwheels - but these were never sufficient to satisfy the needs of a greedy, growing, industrial world. But the information revolution has introduced miniaturisation, and from solar-powered calculators to motion-powered wristwatches, we have been capturing tiny amounts of energy for our gadgets for decades. Now, it seems that our scavenging ways may allow us to squeeze every last drop of the highend energy we produce by powering sensor networks to control its use."
Interactions among different dimensions of a responsive public space: case study in Iran (journal article)
by Maryam Charkhchian and Seyyed Abdolhadi Daneshpour
from Review of Urban and Regional Development Studies, Vol 21 No 1 2009
"A place is generally identified by its varying physical, activity, social and meaning (connotative) characteristics. In this paper, the "Model of Responsive Public Space" is defined by these four aspects and each of them has its own special indicators as shown in previous studies on this subject. To examine this model and evaluate the interactions between these dimensions, experimental studies were carried out in two stages. In the first stage, open-ended structured interviews were carried out with 70 participants to adjust the model with personal opinions about public spaces in Qazvin city, Iran. In the second stage a questionnaire was used to explore the effect of the four dimensions on each other. 598 users of a selected public space participated in this study. The results were analyzed by SPSS software applying a Pearson correlation test and Excel software. These results indicate that not only in theory but also in practice, public spaces have four distinct aspects that must be taken into consideration when creating a responsive public space. The most significance correlation is that between the meaning and the social dimension of public spaces."
Spatially varying effects of re-zoning on housing price (journal article)
by Seong-Hoon Cho, Seung Gyu Kim and Dayton M. Lambert
from Review of Urban and Regional Development Studies, Vol 21 No 1 2009
"A hedonic price equation is estimated at the parcel level to capture the spatially-varying effects of rezoning on housing prices using a geographically weighted regression - spatial autoregressive error model (GWR-SEM). The empirical results highlight a number of points. Firstly, the positive amenities from rezoning to office use act as a buffer and transition the zones between single family housing to commercial zones near downtown areas may be applicable to approving the same kind of rezoning in other areas. Secondly, when approving rezoning from agriculture to residential or commercial use, it may be necessary to anticipate the positive amenities from rezoning in less well-off neighborhoods and the negative amenities from rezoning in well-off neighborhoods. Thirdly, the positive amenities from well-designed open space preservation districts may encourage county planners to consider similar types of projects in the future."
Thursday, 19 November 2009
Reassessing Outsourcing in Ict-Enabled Public Management (journal article)
By Tino Schuppan
from Public Management Review Vol 11 Issue 6 Nov 2009 , pp 811 - 831
"Using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in public administration goes beyond online services, as it also enables new kinds of work sharing and information exchange between different agencies. These can be used to establish new forms of public service delivery, such as the separation of service delivery between front and back offices, which enable better access for citizens. This new kind of ICT enabled work sharing will be used as a basis to analyse whether outsourcing can be reassessed. First, existing approaches to such decisions will be explored against the backdrop of public service delivery processes which have been penetrated by ICT. Next, a framework will be derived which will be used to understand better the potential of different ICT functions to affect outsourcing decisions. Finally, ICT's effect upon outsourcing will be illustrated using examples from the United Kingdom. The UK findings demonstrate that new strategic issues are emerging which are not addressed in existing public management literature about outsourcing and which therefore require further exploration and examination."
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Transport, Housing and Urban Form: The Life Cycle Energy Consumption and Emissions of City Centre Apartments Compared with Suburban Dwellings (journal article)
by Alan Perkins et al.
from Urban Policy and Research, Vol 27 No 4 December 2009, pp.377-396
"Buildings in cities and the activities carried out therein use a significant proportion of a nation's energy consumption and produce substantial quantities of greenhouse gases in the process. Residential buildings are a large contributor, partially as a result of the transport and housing activities of households. In this study, life cycle analysis is used to calculate the total transport and housing energy and emissions from a sample of 41 households in apartment buildings in the city centre of Adelaide, Australia and compare them with suburban households. The purpose of this is to determine whether the urban density option of higher rise dwellings offers a lower environmental impact than conventional housing. The analysis includes delivered energy and greenhouse gas emissions generated by motorised travel and activities within the dwellings, and the energy and emissions embodied in household motor vehicles and the apartment buildings. The total delivered energy consumption of apartment households was found to be lower than suburban households due mainly to higher car usage, particularly in the outer suburbs. However, the analysis of total greenhouse gas emissions provided a somewhat different comparison especially when they were considered on a per capita basis. The total per capita emissions for apartment households varied considerably but, on average, exceeded those of both the inner and outer suburban households. This resulted from lower occupancy rates and higher emissions arising from higher dwelling operational and embodied energy consumption. Overall, it cannot be assumed that centralised, higher density living will deliver per capita emission reductions for residents, once the combined per capita life cycle emissions from housing and transport have been accounted for. A more vigorous educational, promotional and regulatory approach is required to achieve greater operational and embodied energy efficiency in apartment buildings to fully realise the emissions-reducing potential of such buildings in centralised locations. "
Urban Form and Housing Density, Australian Cities and European Models: Copenhagen and Stockholm Reconsidered (journal article)
by Greg Bamford
from Urban Policy and Research, Vol 27 No 4 December 2009, pp. 337-356
"Stockholm and Copenhagen have been widely regarded in English-speaking countries as exemplifying aspects of the compact city—from well planned, mixed use, higher density, transit-oriented development to sociable urban spaces. So how is it that the development of these two cities has also been located in the garden city tradition? This article tackles this question in the context of the implications European cities are often thought to have for low-density Australian cities. Comparisons of the urban form of Stockholm and Brisbane and of higher density housing in Copenhagen and Brisbane emphasise that the 'Scandinavian model' is as much about the role of open space in shaping urban form and in housing design as our current preoccupation with density"
Strategic change: program management (journal article)
by Cecily Macdougall
from Queensland Mining and Energy Bulletin, Spring 2009
"Some of the key learning points gained from our most recent engagements include the lack of understanding of programs and program management, and the recognition that strategic change
programs cannot be run from a line management position. Strategic change can be done successfully, if managed as a strategic program and not part of business as usual activities. Successful change creates value and inspires members to achieve the visions. Unmanaged and unmeasured change increases rework, increases costs and the investment rarely delivers the required outcomes. This article attempts to share some of our experiences with you to illustrate these points."
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Top tech for a cooler planet (journal article)
by Jessica Griggs, Phil McKenna and Maggie Koerth-Baker.
from New Scientist, 03/10/2009, Vol. 203 No. 2728, p36-39
"The article features several environmental friendly products from research laboratories and start-ups. Magnetic refrigeration developed by Camfridge subjects metal alloys to a magnetic field, which causes them to cool down. A superconducting wire was developed by American Superconductor that cuts transmission line losses. Flybrid Systems has designed a flywheel that uses carbon fibre and spins at over three times the speed of conventional flywheels. "
An analysis of the relative efficiency of wastewater utilities in non-metropolitan New South Wales and Victoria (journal article)
by Joel Byrnes, Lin Crase, Brian Dollery and Renato Villano
from Australasian Journal of Regional Studies, Vol. 15, No. 2, 2009
"A recent policy issue in Australian local government has centred on a so-called ‘skills shortage’ in the sector, particularly in regional jurisdictions. In this paper, we estimate the relative efficiency of non-metropolitan water utilities in New South and Victoria and consider the role of divergent governance structures in order to measure the impact of unique managerial factors upon relative efficiency in wastewater service delivery. We find that larger utilities, governed by skills based boards, are relatively more technically efficient than those operating as a business unit of local government. We argue that this is partly explained by the ability of those utilities to attract and retain relatively more skilled staff. A number of policy recommendations are advanced."
This article is available on your desktop, but please ask us for the password.
Friday, 13 November 2009
Author: Thomas Su / Money Cat Consulting
"Guide for companies and professionals in the fast growing cleantech, environmental, green, renewable energy industries seeking to raise investments from global markets." - publishers website. This directory contains the contact details of more than 500 global investment institutions which provide capital for start-ups, middle stage business, expansion capital, infrastructure and other purposes.
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Authors: Property Council of Australia. Residential Development Council / Matusik
"Identifies population forecasts over the next 20 years with a focus on the next five year cycle. This report covers the key hotspots to watch as well as highlights the housing needs and shortfalls of the key 42 capital and regional centres around the country." - executive summary.
Friday, 6 November 2009
Monday, 2 November 2009
Friday, 30 October 2009
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Friday, 23 October 2009
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Capturing power (journal article)
by Matthew Ogg
from Brisbane Business News, Vol 2 No 9, October 2009
"CARS and electricity - two inventions that propelled the world into the modern age, but with finite resources and growing concerns over climate change, they are also destroying the planet. As part of this month's eco feature, Brisbane Business News profiles two companies driving the current change to help reduce pollution from fuel and energy."
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Theory and Practice in Metropolitan Strategy: Situating Recent Australian Planning (journal article)
by Raymond Bunker and Glen Searle
from Urban Policy and Research, Volume 27, Issue 2, June 2009 , pp. 101 - 116
"Over the last several years, metropolitan strategies have been produced for the five mainland state capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. The distinctive characteristics of Australian urban planning mean that they can be shown to reflect an Australian paradigm of planning. However, this paradigm is rewritten in different ways in each strategy reflecting the particular institutional circumstances and political culture of each state. In doing so there is some strong reaffirmation of this paradigm, but also indications of a more relational and transactive manner of planning adding further process to product. Here there is some resonance with recent developments in planning theory and to some extent in practice, largely in Europe. "
Deindustrialisation, Gentrification and the Re-invention of the Inner City: London and Melbourne, c.1960-2008 (journal article)
by Seamus O'Hanlon and Chris Hamnett
from Urban Policy and Research, Volume 27, Issue 3 September 2009 , pp. 211 - 216
"This special issue examines some of the major changes that have taken place over the last
40 years in the economy, social structure, housing markets and physical character of the
inner areas of London and Melbourne. Although the two cities are very different in terms
of their size and global economic position—London having a population of 7.5 million at
the 2001 Census compared to 3.7 million in metropolitan Melbourne in 2006, and London
with New York, emerging as one of the two major world financial centres in the 1980s and
beyond—they have historically shared many economic, social and cultural ties, largely as
a reflection of their common British and Victorian heritage."
See the whole issue of this journal here
Friday, 16 October 2009
Author: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
"Gives a broad description of the shift in governments' focus on e-government development - from a government-centric to a user-centric approach. It gives a comprehensive overview of challenges to user take-up of e-government services in OECD countries and of the different types of approaches to improving it." - abstract.
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Authors: International Energy Agency (IEA) / Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
"Industry accounts for one-third of global energy use and almost 40% of worldwide CO2 emissions. Achieving substantial emissions reduction in the future will require urgent action from industry. ... [this publication contains] detailed sectoral and regional analyses ... It contains new indicators and methodologies as well as scenario results for the following sectors: iron and steel, cement, chemicals, pulp and paper and aluminium sectors. The report discusses the prospects for new low-carbon technologies and outlines potential technology transition paths for the most important industrial sectors." - abstract.
Friday, 9 October 2009
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Friday, 2 October 2009
Want to borrow a copy from the library? Click here to email through your request.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Consumers think Green is not so cool
Source: IPPR
"Given the runaway popularity of the 10:10 campaign, which the Guardian is backing, it would be churlish to offer it anything but praise. By providing a meaningful, tangible and immediate focus for action, it has been a clear success in attracting the support of thousands of individuals, companies and other organisations that are concerned about climate change.
But just how widespread will its appeal be? In light of new research from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) published in its Consumer Power report, the 10:10 campaign may actually be failing to resonate with a large swath of mainstream consumers."
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Squeezing more oil from the ground (journal article)
by Leonardo Maugeri
from Scientific American, October 2009, pp. 36-43
"Amid warnings of a possible"peak oil", advanced technologies offer ways to extract every last possible drop. Key concepts of tha article are: forecasts that global oil production will soon start to deciline and that most oil will be gone in a few decades may be overly pessimistic; thanks to advanced technologies wells will be able to extract half of the oil known to be underground, up from the current 35%; increased productivity could make oil last at least another century."
Ask us for a copy of this article
E-government cluster boots up with $250k funding (journal article)
by Georgina Swan
from CIO Government, 10 September 2009
"A technology cluster aimed at supporting and strengthening government ICT industries in Australia will inject $150,000 into the industry in 2010, with a commitment for a further $100,000 per annum through to 2011-12.
The e-government cluster is a partnership between National ICT Australia (NICTA), the ACT government, several major international companies, ACT companies and other research organisations including the ANU.
It aims to develop technology that will enable governments to deliver better services, reduce costs and open up new opportunities for businesses. "
Water Utilities Cite Aging Equipment, Regulations, and Funding As Top Challenges. (journal article)
by Jay Landers
from Civil Engineering, September 2009
"The article presents a survey developed by the University of Cincinnati relative to the most formidable challenges facing U.S. drinking water and waste water utilities for the next 50 years. The survey includes 42 questions distributed to the members of the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, National Association of Clean Water Agencies, and the National Association of Water Companies. It shows that the challenges include aging infrastructure and funding shortfalls."
Monday, 28 September 2009
Abandoning Babylonian principles to rebuild our irrigation infrastructure (journal article)
by Iven Mareels
from ATSE Focus, August/September 2009
"The world's present water management is ... considered unsustainable because of the observed ecological deterioration of most of our natural water systems, but actually estimating the water resource that is readily and sustainably available for human activity is difficult. It is severely hampered by the paucity of quality data. Groundwater data in particular are scantily available. Australia reflects the world water situation well. Australia's water is already recognised as an activity-limiting resource that is further challenged by population growth and climate change: most of our urban communities are used to water restrictions; our farmers are subject to vastly reduced irrigation allocations; and our main river system, the Murray Darling, suffers severe environmental stress. In spite of this, our water infrastructure (like the rest of the world) is still largely fixated in the Deakin era, and our operational practices are definitely Sumerian/Babylonian in nature (although admittedly no longer temple-based) and suffer from low efficiency. This does not augur well for the future. "
Climate change scenarios: David Karoly (video)
Source: SlowTV / The Monthly
"In this talk, climate expert David Karoly lays out the likely future climate change scenarios - and how dependent they are on human actions now - while presenting the latest scientific findings on the earth's climate . Karoly is a professor in the University of Melbourne's school of earth sciences and a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. His work on the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change brought him international recognition. "
Friday, 25 September 2009
Influence of research funding and science policy on university research performance: a comparison of five countries (journal article)
by Laura Himanen, Otto Auranen, Hanna-Mari Puuska, Mika Nieminen
from Science and Public Policy, Volume 36, Number 6, July 2009 , pp. 419-430(12)
"The ability of universities to efficiently produce high-standard knowledge has become an important goal in science policies of many developed countries. Thus, many countries nowadays steer universities based on performance monitoring and competition. This article analyzes the connection between the competitiveness of the university funding environment and research performance in five OECD countries in 1987-2006. Besides funding, other science policy factors are analyzed using the framework of four state steering models. Results indicate that the university funding environment has become more competitive in all the compared countries, but the extent and pace of this development varies. Countries also differ in relation to steering models but all have employed policy elements typical of at least two models. In terms of competitive funding environment and research performance, there is no straightforward relationship between the two. With reference to the state steering models, the most traditional model which emphasizes university independence from the state seems to be the most beneficial to research performance. "
Thursday, 24 September 2009
What Local Policy Makers Should Know about Urban Road Charging: Lessons from Worldwide Experience (journal article)
By Daniel Albalate and Germè Bel
from Public Administration Review Vol 69 No 5 2009, pp. 962 - 974
"Congestion costs are emerging as one of the most important challenges faced by metropolitan planners and transport authorities in developed economies. In the United States, these costs were as high as $78 billion in 2005 and are growing as a result of rapid increases in travel delays. In order to solve the current and severe levels of congestion, the U.S. Department of Transportation has recently started a program to initiate congestion pricing in five metropolitan areas. In this context, it is important to identify factors that influence successful implementation, as well as the problems or difficulties associated with charging projects. The authors review, synthesize, and analyze worldwide experience with urban road charging in order to extract lessons for policy makers who are considering the implementation of congestion pricing projects and for those who are interested in the introduction of traffic management tools to regulate entrance to city centers. "
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Defining regional research priorities: a new approach (journal article)
By Hariolf Grup, Sybille Hinze and Barbara Breitschopf
from Science and Public Policy Vol 36 No 7 Aug 2009, pp. 549-559
"This paper outlines a new approach to defining research priorities at a regional level. The methodical approach relies on a combination of bibliometric indicators and qualitative data and aims at the identification, selection and evaluation of medium-term relevant research fields. This type of analysis of quantitative and qualitative data contributes to what is called evidence-based policy making. By linking bibliometric information with questionnaire-based assessments by more than 480 scientists in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg (Germany), strategic research fields were pre-selected for potential policy action. Overall, the study shows that strategic decisions for shaping and advancing research processes demand not only methodical proficiency in bibliometrics but also a broad knowledge of the structure of the research landscape and forward thinking on a broad canvas."
Creativity: people, environment and culture, the key elements in its understanding and interpretation (journal article)
By Paulo C. De Miranda, Jose Aranha and Julia Zardo
from Science and Public Policy Vol 36, No 7 Aug 2009, pp. 523-535
"This paper discusses three aspects of entrepreneurship: people (innovators, entrepreneurs and amateurs) at the core of creative production who 'function' as agents of transformation; culture which helps to motivate people and create a value system (embedded contexts) and; the environment where innovations and entrepreneurial settings function as productive factors to stimulate more creativity. Looking from these three angles we present a triple helix for innovation related to creativity or the creative industry. Relying on a substantive report issued in 2008 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, we explore aspects linked with the creative industries or the economies that form part of it. Despite differing views on the definition of the term 'creativity', the paper tries to analyse creative people as entrepreneurs, proposing a triadic approach to understand and interpret it, thus presenting our second, more consolidated, triple helix for creative entrepreneurship. We also draw on practical knowledge to discuss the core elements of our triple helix."
TECHNOLOGY CHOICE AND ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS IN A TRADE AND ENVIRONMENT CONTEXT (journal article)
By Akira Yakita
from Australian Economic Papers Vol 48 Iss 3 2009, pp. 270 - 279
"Assuming that an environmentally-friendly technology not only reduces pollution emissions but also strengthens the preference of consumers for goods produced with such a technology, we show that a legally stipulated choice of cleaner technologies, requiring resources and hence reducing output, can improve the welfare of the economy even when other economies do not choose such technologies, and that the driving force can be the terms-of-trade effect. Therefore, even a unilateral regulation on the choice of technology would be approved in the economy when the environmental awareness of consumers is sufficiently raised."
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Monday, 21 September 2009
Kings of the road go green
by Phil McKenna
from New Scientist, Vol. 203, Issue 2721
"A concept vehicle called the Innovation Truck unveiled in April by Daimler Trucks North America is designed to show what is possible by tweaking a vehicle's aerodynamics. In wind tunnel tests it used 3 per cent less fuel than an unmodified truck - which rolled out across the entire US truck fleet would save about 4.3 billion litres of fuel annually. This translates into an annual cut in CO2 emissions of over 11 million tonnes.
More ambitious plans are afoot. Engineers and industry leaders at an RMI conference on freight-vehicle efficiency in April concluded that readily available and inexpensive technologies could boost efficiency by up to 23 per cent, and even doubling or tripling fuel efficiency might be within reach."
Urban Structure and Commuting in Australian Cities (journal article)
by Peter Rickwood and Garry Glazebrook
from Urban Policy and Research, Volume 27, No 2 June 2009, pp. 171-188
"Studies looking at the relationship between urban form and travel behaviour have generally considered spatial information at coarse metropolitan or local government area scales. We analyse ABS census data at the Collection District level for the metropolitan areas of the mainland Australian state capital cities, and at various spatial scales for an in-depth analysis of commuting in Sydney. The analyses suggest that the relationship between travel behaviour and urban form is complex, and that simple analyses of density alone are likely to overstate the effect of both metropolitan and neighbourhood scale population density on mode choice, but that these variables serve as useful proxies for more complex measures of urban structure."
Theory and Practice in Metropolitan Strategy: Situating Recent Australian Planning (journal article)
by Raymond Bunker and Glen Searle
from Urban Policy and Research, Volume 27 No 2 June 2009, pp. 101-116
"Over the last several years, metropolitan strategies have been produced for the five mainland state capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. The distinctive characteristics of Australian urban planning mean that they can be shown to reflect an Australian paradigm of planning. However, this paradigm is rewritten in different ways in each strategy reflecting the particular institutional circumstances and political culture of each state. In doing so there is some strong reaffirmation of this paradigm, but also indications of a more relational and transactive manner of planning adding further process to product. Here there is some resonance with recent developments in planning theory and to some extent in practice, largely in Europe. "
Friday, 18 September 2009
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Monday, 14 September 2009
Emissions trading: a zero sum game? (article)
by Josh Fear
from Australia Institute, Online Opinion, 9 September 2009
"Some people, particularly firm believers in the Rudd Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, ascribe almost magical powers to emissions trading, believing it can transform the moral as well as the economic basis of our society. The assumption behind the government's policy is that an issue as complex as climate change issue can be addressed via one simple instrument. The CPRS relies on changes in price, to the exclusion of all other factors, to bring about changes in behaviour. While price is important, it is by no means the only determinant of behaviour. Just as critical is the intrinsic urge to act in one way rather than another due to habit, personality or even the desire to make a difference."
2080: Energy and society (speech)
by Ian Lowe
from SlowTV
"Ian Lowe speaks about the future of global energy supplies. As he puts it, our society's heavy reliance on oil and other fossil fuels makes us vulnerable for both economic and environmental reasons. Without substantial and immediate moves to find new energy sources, the dwindling oil supplies will have a massive impact on how we live - and in the meantime they are doing great environmental damage. "
Solar research wrap (article)
from EcoGeneration Sept/Oct 2009
"Solar researchers around the nation are developing new ways to harness the sun's energy that will increase efficiency and lower materials costs. From flexible lightweight solar cells for defence and security, to new power storage solutions, EcoGeneration takes a look at some of the major solar research programs from around Australia."
Enterprise value: governance of IT investments - getting started with value management (article)
from The IT Governance Institute
"This document forms part of the IT Governance Institute’s (ITGI’s) Val ITTM initiative, which is dedicated to helping enterprises optimise the realisation of value from IT investments. Drawing on the collective experience of a global team of practitioners and academics, existing and emerging practices and methodologies, and a rapidly growing body of research, the initiative has resulted in the development of the Val IT framework. This is a governance framework that consists of a set of guiding principles and a number of processes conforming to those principles that are further defined as a set of key management practices."
Friday, 11 September 2009
Tuesday, 8 September 2009
