Research Funding Research Articles

Forecasting Urban Traffic States with Sparse Data Using Hankel Temporal Matrix Factorization

Forecasting urban traffic states is crucial to transportation network monitoring and management, playing an important role in the decision-making process. Despite the substantial progress that has been made in developing accurate, efficient, and reliable algorithms for traffic forecasting, most existing approaches fail to handle sparsity, high-dimensionality, and nonstationarity in traffic time series and seldom consider the temporal dependence between traffic states. To address these issues, this work presents a Hankel temporal matrix factorization (HTMF) model using the Hankel matrix in the lower dimensional spaces under a matrix factorization framework. In particular, we consider an alternating minimization scheme to optimize the factor matrices in matrix factorization and the Hankel matrix in the lower dimensional spaces simultaneously. To perform traffic state forecasting, we introduce two efficient estimation processes on real-time incremental data, including an online imputation (i.e., reconstruct missing values) and an online forecasting (i.e., estimate future data points). Through extensive experiments on the real-world Uber movement speed data set in Seattle, Washington, we empirically demonstrate the superior forecasting performance of HTMF over several baseline models and highlight the advantages of HTMF for addressing sparsity, nonstationarity, and short time series. History: Accepted by Ram Ramesh, Area Editor for Data Science & Machine Learning. Funding: This research was supported by the Institute for Data Valorisation, the Interuniversity Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation, the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 12371456, 72101049, 72232001], the Sichuan Science and Technology Program [Grant 2024NSFJQ0038], and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [Grant DUT23RC(3)045].

The Allocation of Talent and Financial Development, 1897 to 1936

We examine how the supply of talent affected financial development based on an experiment that abruptly changed the allocation of talent in historical China. Under the meritocratic civil examination system, government service was the main employment for the Chinese intellectuals. The abolition of this system in 1905 reduced the status and wealth attached to government service, which led the intellectuals to turn to modern banking as a high-status sector of employment. We find that regions where there were more candidates for the civil examination produced more financial professionals after 1905, which translated to a greater development of modern banking. This paper was accepted by Lin William Cong, finance. Funding: C. Lin and C. Ma acknowledge the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong [Grant AoE/B-704/22-R], Y. Sun acknowledges the Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 72203037] and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in UIBE [Grant 20QD14; CXTD12-01], and Y. Xu acknowledges the Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 72203013] for financial support. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.00456 .

The interface between research funding and environmental policies in an emergent economy using neural topic modeling: Proposals for a research agenda

AbstractResearchers have been calling for further analysis of the relationships between academia and policy making. Since several studies are conducted with resources from public funding agencies, it is essential to assess whether governments have been supporting research that can contribute to future environmental policies and whether research has been supporting the elaboration of public policies. To fill these gaps, the objective of this study was to evaluate the similarities and gaps between research and environmental policies. A bibliometric analysis of studies funded by Chilean agencies and text analytics techniques were employed to analyze research and environmental policies. We used BERTopic, a topic modeling technique that generates coherent topic representations. Then, topics obtained from the two sets of documents (research and policies) were compared. This study found that sustainability, life‐cycle assessment, climate change, and ecosystem services are central research themes in the country. The topic modeling analysis showed that research has been concentrated on the areas of “Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture Management” and “Sustainable Bioenergy Production and Chemical Processes.” The topics most frequently present in the environmental policies were “Environmental Education for Children: Awareness and Care,” “Bird Conservation and Habitat Importance in Chile,” and “National Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use Strategy.” The greatest gaps are observed in the clusters of “Sustainable Bioenergy Production and Chemical Processes” and “Copper Mining and Mineral Processing Techniques” (prevalent in research) and in “Anatomy and Physiology of Aquatic and Terrestrial Organisms” and “Biogeography and Taxonomy of Southern Hemisphere Insects” (prevalent in policy).

Vascular cognitive impairment and dementia: Mechanisms, treatment, and future directions.

Worldwide, around 50 million people live with dementia, and this number is projected to triple by 2050. It has been estimated that 20% of all dementia cases have a predominant cerebrovascular pathology, while perhaps another 20% of vascular diseases contribute to a mixed dementia picture. Therefore, the vascular contribution to dementia affects 20 million people currently and will increase markedly in the next few decades, particularly in lower- and middle-income countries.In this review, we discuss the mechanisms of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) and review management. VCI refers to the spectrum of cerebrovascular pathologies that contribute to any degree of cognitive impairment, ranging from subjective cognitive decline, to mild cognitive impairment, to dementia. While acute cognitive decline occurring soon after a stroke is the most recognized form of VCI, chronic cerebrovascular disease, in particular cerebral small-vessel disease, can cause insidious cognitive decline in the absence of stroke. Moreover, cerebrovascular disease not only commonly co-occurs with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and increases the probability that AD pathology will result in clinical dementia, but may also contribute etiologically to the development of AD pathologies.Despite its enormous health and economic impact, VCI has been a neglected research area, with few adequately powered trials of therapies, resulting in few proven treatments. Current management of VCI emphasizes prevention and treatment of stroke and vascular risk factors, with most evidence for intensive hypertension control. Reperfusion therapies in acute stroke may attenuate the risk of VCI. Associated behavioral symptoms such as apathy and poststroke emotionalism are common. We also highlight novel treatment strategies that will hopefully lead to new disease course-modifying therapies. Finally, we highlight the importance of including cognitive endpoints in large cardiovascular prevention trials and the need for an increased research focus and funding for this important area.

Funding priorities and health outcomes in Danish medical research

External research funding is an essential component of the infrastructure of modern, academic research. Priorities in funding decisions drive what knowledge is generated, and how scientists’ careers are shaped. For health research, it can ultimately have implications for health outcomes. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how funding information can be used to track priorities in health research, linking them to disease burdens and research outputs. Furthermore, funding concentrations are analysed from both researcher and disease perspectives, to estimate the influence of personal Matthew-effects on the distribution of health research funding. Denmark is used as the case, including funding information from all major public and private research foundations in the period 2004–2016. Grant information is linked to research outputs and disability-adjusted life-years (DALY rates), for 34,160 publications linked to 2630 grants, receiving DKK 4.8 billion in funding. Data show poor correlation between funding priorities, research activity and disease burdens, with several diseases receiving disproportionate amounts of funding. A research opportunity index is calculated to identify diseases with the highest potential for future investments from a burden-centred point of view. Funding is highly concentrated, both on people and on specific diseases. High funding concentrations on researchers can be a driving factor behind the observed funding-to-burden imbalances, and may risk knowledge stagnation through monopolisation of the market place of ideas. Results indicate that funders of clinical and translational research, as well as some types of biomedical research, need to supplement traditional considerations of scientific excellence with measures of societal challenges and relevance.

PSLBI-4 Influence of gender on animal science research funding from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Abstract According to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, females and males in science disciplines obtain bachelor’s degrees at or near parity, yet females are not equally represented in academic faculty positions. This is true for agricultural fields including the animal sciences. The USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) administers the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), a flagship competitive grants program that funds research, education, and extension efforts with a total appropriation of $445 million in 2024. Our objective was to determine the difference between genders for submission rates (i.e., number of standard and seed grant applications submitted), peer reviewers of grant applications, and success rates (i.e., number of grant awards/number of applications submitted) in the main animal related AFRI program area priorities. All applications submitted to AFRI programs in animal genomics, reproduction, health, nutrition and growth, and welfare during yr 2013-2022 were evaluated. Gender was assigned to Project Directors (PD) and peer reviewers using first names as input into Gender API software (Gender-API.com; Passau, Germany) with ≥ 95% accuracy and ≥ 20 database occurrences used as quality filters and binary outcomes only (i.e., male or female). Effect of gender on submission rates, peer review panel compositions, and success rates were then analyzed using Pearson’s Chi-squared tests with P ≤ 0.05 considered significant. Results: A total of 3,757 applications were submitted, of which 2,761 (73%) PD genders were assigned and analyzed further. Overall, the proportional submission rate for females was 28% and for males was 72%. Submission rates for females increased (P = 0.0614) over time ranging from 22% in 2013 to 33% in 2021. Submission rates differed by gender across programs (P < 0.0001) and ranged from 23% female in animal reproduction to 48% female in animal welfare. Across 48 panels, 41% of panelists were female; no differences were identified for the proportion of female panelists over time (P = 0.9509) or by program (P = 0.9298). Overall, the funding success rate for females was 23% and for males was 22%. Success rates did not differ between genders over time (P = 0.9080) or by program (P = 0.9094). Females submitted less than one-half as many applications as did males, but the proportion of submissions by females increased over time. This trend remained consistent despite challenges of relocation of NIFA and COVID-19 during this time. Overall, the proportion of NIFA panelists who were female exceeded the proportion of applications submitted by females. Funding success rates did not differ by gender and increased for both genders over time. These results indicate that although differences in gender existed for application submission rate and panel composition, these differences did not impact funding success rate of applications in animal science programs at NIFA, which did not differ between genders.

Circulating inflammatory and immune response proteins and endometrial cancer risk: a nested case-control study and Mendelian randomization analyses

Inflammation and immune dysregulation are hypothesized contributors to endometrial carcinogenesis; however, the precise underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We measured pre-diagnostically 152 plasma protein biomarkers in 624 endometrial cancer case-control pairs nested within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort. Odds ratios (ORs) were estimated using conditional logistic regression, accounting for confounding and multiple comparisons. Proteins considered as associated with endometrial cancer risk were further tested in a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis using summary data from the UK Biobank (n=52,363) and the Endometrial Cancer Association Consortium (12,270 cases and 46,126 controls). In the EPIC nested case-control study, IL-6 [OR per NPX (doubling of concentration)=1.28 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03-1.57)], HGF [1.48 (1.06-2.07)], PIK3AP1 [1.22 (1.00-1.50)] and CLEC4G [1.52 (1.00-2.32)] were positively associated; HSD11B1 [0.67 (0.49-0.91)], SCF [0.68 (0.49-0.94)], and CCL25 [0.80 (0.65-0.99)] were inversely associated with endometrial cancer risk; all estimates had multiple comparisons adjusted P-value > 0.05. In complementary MR analysis, IL-6 [OR per inverse-rank normalized NPX=1.19 (95% CI 1.04-1.36)] and HSD11B1 [0.91 (0.84-0.99)] were associated with endometrial cancer risk. Altered IL-6 signalling and reduced glucocorticoid activity via HSD11B1 might play important roles in endometrial carcinogenesis. Funding for IIG_FULL_2021_008 was obtained from Wereld Kanker Onderzoek Fonds (WKOF), as part of the World Cancer Research Fund International grant programme; Funding for INCA_15849 was obtained from Institut National du Cancer (INCa).

Data sharing policies across health research globally: Cross-sectional meta-research study.

Data sharing improves the value, synthesis, and integrity of research, but rates are low. Data sharing might be improved if data sharing policies were prominent and actionable at every stage of research. We aimed to systematically describe the epidemiology of data sharing policies across the health research lifecycle. This was a cross-sectional analysis of the data sharing policies of the largest health research funders, all national ethics committees, all clinical trial registries, the highest-impact medical journals, and all medical research data repositories. Stakeholders' official websites, online reports, and other records were reviewed up to May 2022. The strength and characteristics of their data sharing policies were assessed, including their policies on data sharing intention statements (a.k.a. data accessibility statements) and on data sharing specifically for coronavirus disease studies. Data were manually extracted in duplicate, and policies were descriptively analysed by their stakeholder and characteristics. Nine hundred and thirty-five eligible stakeholders were identified: 110 funders, 124 ethics committees, 18 trial registries, 273 journals, and 410 data repositories. Data sharing was required by 41% (45/110) of funders, no ethics committees or trial registries, 19% (52/273) of journals and 6% (24/410) of data repositories. Among funder types, a higher proportion of private (63%, 35/55) and philanthropic (67%, 4/6) funders required data sharing than public funders (12%, 6/49). Data sharing requirements, and even recommendations, were insufficient across health research. Where data sharing was required or recommended, there was limited guidance on implementation. We describe multiple pathways to improve the implementation of data sharing. Public funders and ethics committees are two stakeholders with particularly important untapped opportunities.

A Scoping Review of Intimate Partner Violence Research in Canada.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is at epidemic levels across low-, middle-, and high-income countries, including Canada, where recent lifetime prevalence indicated that over 40% of women had IPV experiences. In response to this, Canada's federal government has made investments toward IPV prevention and response. We conducted a scoping review of English and French literature identified through searches of multiple databases and specific journals to assess the current state of IPV research in Canada. A total of 267 articles met inclusion criteria of being peer-reviewed research primarily about IPV in either French or English published from 2020 to 2022 with at least one Canadian-affiliated author. Almost a third of studies described services for survivors but did not evaluate service effectiveness. We noted a significant gap in research on the IPV experiences of gender and/or sexual minorities. Canada's federal social science research funding agency was the most common funder, with the two federal government departments with specific IPV funding initiatives in place cited as funding less than 6% of included studies. In general, there remains an overfocus on IPV epidemiology and on descriptions of service use, and not enough research examining the effectiveness and implementation of interventions, especially grounded in theoretical, gendered, and trauma- and violence-informed frameworks. Funders and researchers are encouraged to consider moving resources from ongoing description of well-established factors to assessment and implementation of evidence-informed interventions, and, crucially, primary prevention of IPV and all forms of gender-based violence.

Permanently infertile couples and family building-a cross-sectional survey in Denmark.

Which decision-making factors influence family building among permanently infertile couples? Ethical, legal, and financial considerations outweigh genetic relatedness in decision-making, favouring domestic gestational surrogacy, if this were possible, over international options. Permanent infertility affects 4-5% of people in the fertile age. Their family-building options include adoption, surrogacy, uterus transplantation, foster care, and intentional multiple parenthood. However, in most countries, including Denmark, legal barriers constrain these methods due to surrogacy restrictions, suspended international adoptions, and the experimental status of uterus transplantation. Despite existing research on surrogacy, adoption, and specific causes of permanent infertility, a significant gap remains in our understanding of how couples with permanent infertility make family-building decisions within these limited frameworks. This cross-sectional study with 150 permanently infertile Danish participants was conducted from June to November 2023 using an online questionnaire. Multiple strategies, such as online forums, fertility clinics, hospital departments, and snowballing, were used to recruit a diverse sample. The study included couples aged 26-50 years facing permanent infertility due to the following primary causes: women without a uterus (15%), women with a non-functional uterus (47%) or women for whom pregnancy would be life-threatening (9%), male couples (16%), transgender partner couples (2%), and other causes (11%). The survey collected data on demographics, reproductive history, family-building choices, and communication strategies. Closed questions were analysed using descriptive statistics. Among 150 respondents, 41% had used transnational surrogacy, 27% adoption, 14% chose to remain childless, and 19% were undecided. Critical factors on family-building decisions were ethical, legal, and financial concerns which ranked higher than genetic relatedness. Despite the complexity of family building, most participants were open about their child's origin and received social support. If all family-building methods were legal and available in Denmark, domestic gestational surrogacy would be the preferred method, with uterus transplantation and remaining childless being least popular. The sample size is relatively small, despite the use of a variety of recruitment strategies. Nevertheless, this has ensured a diverse cohort representing the different reasons for infertility and family-building choices. It is important to note that the strategies may have favoured individuals achieving parenthood. The finding of our study reveals a notable gap between available family-building options in Denmark and the preferences of couples facing permanent infertility. These insights could be instrumental for organizations reviewing and developing family-building frameworks. Furthermore, for healthcare professionals guiding couples experiencing infertility issues in their attempts to build a family, an understanding of these preferences is essential to facilitate informed decisions about their future family plans. The project was financed by the Independent Research Fund Denmark. The authors have no conflict of interest to declare. N/A.

Assessment of male creatinine levels and fecundity in couples planning pregnancy: a national cohort study in China.

Is there an association between male creatinine levels and time to pregnancy (TTP) in couples planning pregnancy? Low and high male creatinine concentrations were associated with reduced couple fecundity. Abundant evidence suggests male creatinine dysfunction is associated with infertility in males with kidney diseases. However, the association of preconception creatinine levels with reduced fecundity among general reproductive-aged couples lacks evidence from an in-depth population study. Based on the population-based cohort study from the National Free Preconception Check-up Projects, 4023204 couples were recruited and met the inclusion criteria from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2017. They were planning pregnancy and were followed up every 3 months until achieving pregnancy as detected by gynaecological ultrasonography or were followed up for 1 year for the analysis of TTP. Cox regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CI for creatinine deciles. Restricted cubic spline regression was adopted for the dose-response relationship of creatinine with HRs. R statistical software was used for data analysis. Of the included participants, 2756538 (68.52%) couples successfully conceived. The median male serum creatinine was 81.50 μmol/l. Compared with the reference group (78.00-81.49 μmol/l) including the median creatinine, fecundity in the first (≤64.89 μmol/l), second (64.90-69.99 μmol/l), third (70.00-73.99 μmol/l), and tenth (≥101.00 μmol/l) deciles decreased by 8%, 5%, 2%, and 1%, respectively (Decile 1 Adjusted HR 0.92, 95% CI 0.91-0.92; Decile 2 Adjusted HR 0.95, 95% CI 0.95-0.96; Decile 3 Adjusted HR 0.98, 95% CI 0.97-0.99; Decile 10 Adjusted HR 0.99, 95% CI 0.98-0.99). An inverse-U-shaped association was consistently presented among males such that non-inferiority for fecundity was shown when creatinine was in the 81.66-104.90 μmol/l range (P for non-linearity < 0.001). For males over 40 years old, the risk of fecundity impairment was more obvious and the recommended range of creatinine levels for TTP was reduced and more narrow, compared with that for younger males. Not including the time couples spend preparing for pregnancy before enrolment would lead to an overestimation of fecundity; additionally some couples place pregnancy plans on hold due to special emergencies, which would not have been recognized. Due to the lack of information regarding semen quality, psychological factors, sexual intercourse frequencies, and hazardous environmental factors, we could not adjust for these factors. Some variates were self-reported and dichotomized, which were prone to bias. Direct variables reflecting muscle mass and impaired kidney function were lacking. Thus, extrapolation should be done with caution. Male creatinine is associated with couples' fecundity and the relationship varied by age. This study provides a better understanding of the potential implications and significance of different creatinine levels and their association with the clinical significance regarding couples' fecundity. This research has received funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81872634), the Basic Research Funds of Central Public Welfare Research Institutes of China (Grant No. 2023GJZ03), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFC1000307), and the Project of National Research Institute for Family Planning (Grant No. 2018NRIFPJ03), People's Republic of China. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. N/A.

Exploring the evolution of research connectivity and funding in global neurosurgical publications

There are critical disparities in the neurosurgical care provided around the globe due to challenges in resource allocation, training, and infrastructure. Global neurosurgical collaborations have replaced classical mission trips to address these disparities. However, the development of these collaborations and the impact of research funding on their growth has not yet been systematically studied. In this article, we use a graph theoretical approach to investigate trends in funding and co-authorship between and among authors from high-income countries (HICs) and authors from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). A bibliometric search of the global neurosurgical literature returned 307 articles between 1985 and 2020. A connectivity analysis was conducted to compute the number of co-authorships between HIC-HIC, LMIC-HIC, and LMIC-LMIC authors. The number of connections, summarized as either a global sum of connections or an average number of connections per manuscript, were analyzed in the context of time and funding through parametric statistical tests. An exponential increase in co-authorship collaboration was observed over time, especially after 2015. Notably, LMIC-LMIC collaborations appear to be rising at over twice the rate of other collaboration types. The presence of funding, in general, was associated with increased co-authorship of manuscripts by LMIC and HIC authors together (p = 0.033). A significant majority of the funding associated with LMIC-HIC co-authorships was supplied through charitable organizations and government grants (p = 0.034, p = 0.009, respectively). Most LMIC-LMIC co-authorships had no funding. This work shows significant and rapid growth in international neurosurgical partnerships, especially in HIC-LMIC and LMIC-LMIC collaborations. Also, a significant positive relationship exists between research funding and LMIC-HIC co-authorship trends. This work encourages us as a community to continue to expand our translational collaborations with LMIC neurosurgeons and establish funding mechanisms independent of HIC authors.

Synergizing human insight and machine learning: A dual-lens approach to uncovering healthcare research and innovation outcomes

Many healthcare organisations have extensive documentation detailing the processes behind their various research and innovation projects. Analysing this data can provide valuable insights into why some projects succeed without major issues, others encounter and overcome problems, and some ultimately fail. This study introduces an approach that combines narrative interviews and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to identify patterns associated with innovation project outcomes. We analysed 618 documents from 67 projects provided by ZonMw, a major Dutch healthcare research funder, and conducted 32 narrative interviews across seven cases of healthcare innovation projects. By using narrative interviews to inform and pre-train a text embedding model, we demonstrate the potential to create a proxy for human judgement, allowing for a more natural identification of contextual patterns in project documentation. The findings indicate that successful projects are more likely to adopt a proactive approach to role changes and uncertainty (due to ambiguous laws and regulations) and to allow flexibility, which enhances stakeholder engagement, compared to failed projects. However, while we were able to conduct descriptive analysis to gain these insights, significant interpretation is still required to fully understand the findings. Our study makes two primary contributions: first, it offers a new approach for future research on the factors that determine project success or failure, closely aligning with Structuration Theory. Additionally, it suggests potential efficiency improvements in theory development by enabling multiple pattern configurations within Grounded Theory. Second, it offers practical strategies for organisations to more effectively capture and use contextual information in their project documentation for future success.

A game of snakes and ladders: the world of complex health and social care data linkage

Objective and ApproachResearch on social care services requires large, comprehensive, routine datasets. Launched in November 2019, Developing resources And minimum data set for Care Homes’ Adoption (DACHA) study aims to develop a prototype minimum dataset as proof of concept and to propose implementation. We describe our experience since 2021 of identifying, applying for, and linking care home, local, integrated care system (ICS) and national datasets, including direct-care software-provider data, GP and NHS England (NHSE) datasets. ResultsOur key challenges: Risk aversion and fragmented information governance within and between organisations. Complex information governance structures must be understood before participants are recruited. Shifts in the data landscape: data ownership moved from clinical commissioning groups to ICSs; NHSE merged with NHS Digital. Research funding: research is required of ICSs, but it is not a system priority, so processes and funding aren’t in place, and research burdens an already strained system. Our key lessons: Formalising agreements early on and obtaining, and maintaining, senior, committed buy-in. Studies should value the data sharing process through the inclusion of data controllers and information governance staff in the system in research project budgets. The facilitation of GP and social care data collection nationally must be balanced with its administrative burden. ImplicationsThe DACHA study overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic and could only engage a limited number (n=3) of ICSs within project resources. Nevertheless, the complexity of the system and the plurality of actors delay or even block legitimate research interests.

SynD: Australian synthetic health data community of practice

ObjectivesThe current workflow for health data research in Australia is inefficient. After funding is secured, researchers often face delays of months or years to access the necessary data. Synthetic data could significantly improve the pace and impact of health data research but lacks foundational infrastructure. We aim to develop this infrastructure and support the use of synthetic data to improve data access and research quality across Australia. ApproachWe held two workshops with Australian groups working on synthetic data. The format included participant updates and invited talks on international approaches to synthetic data and health data research. Workshops collected use cases and stimulated discussion on national collaboration. A facilitator then led thematic analysis to draft a consensus roadmap and terms of reference towards national synthetic data infrastructure. ResultsWe recruited 18 participants. Participants were cross sectoral: universities (9), research funding bodies (5), state health departments (4). Represented six states and territories: Queensland (6), New South Wales (3), Victoria (3), Western Australia (3), Australian Capital Territory (2), South Australia (1). Gender: women (11), men (7). The roadmap includes stakeholder engagement, a governance framework, and training events. ConclusionSynD is an Australian community of practice for synthetic health data. Our mission is to unlock the value of health information through synthetic data to advance research, education, innovation and service delivery within the health and care sector. This collaborative effort should ensure a harmonised approach to the safe and effective utilisation of synthetic data to enhance health outcomes across Australia.

Colonial Legacy and Informal Finance

An influential line of research emphasizes that colonial legacy plays a key role in formal financial development. Can colonial legacy also shape informal finance? We investigate the impact of colonial legacy on informal financial development using a manually georeferenced data set within a credible empirical framework. In the 19th century, Europeans arbitrarily designed colonial borders that partitioned many ethnicities across multiple countries in Africa. Leveraging several spatial regression discontinuity designs across national borders and within British-French–partitioned Cameroon and a unique natural experiment where the same former British colony is compared with two otherwise similar areas with different exposures to French colonization, we discover that former British colonies today have better informal financial development than former French colonies. Exploring the channels, we find that places with a British colonial legacy maintain a style of social control that facilitates information flow, supports private enforcement and market interactions, and promotes strong legal cultures. This paper was accepted by Kay Giesecke, finance. Funding: C. Lin acknowledges the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong for financial support [Grant AoE/B-704/22-R]. J. An acknowledges the general financial support from The University of Hong Kong Start-up Fund for New Professoriate Staff. M. Tai acknowledges the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong for financial support [General Research Fund No. 17500722]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.01856 .

Social Learning and Content Quality Under Polarization

Problem definition: This paper studies how polarization influences content consumption and production on digital platforms that monetize consumer engagement. Specifically, we consider a content that advocates a particular position on a divisive issue. Consumers with polarized preferences toward the content’s position are sequentially exposed to the content. Initially, consumers are uncertain about the content quality, but they have the opportunity to learn about it using aggregate consumption metrics and other informative signals provided by the platform. Methodology/results: Using a stylized model, we find that under polarization, social learning based on consumption metrics can mislead consumers to perceive low-quality content as higher quality, even in the long run. Consequently, content providers may decrease their effort to improve content quality. These effects are amplified for more polarizing issues, especially when the content’s position is “mainstream” (i.e., aligned with the majority of the population). Our results thus provide a potential explanation for the proliferation of low-quality, polarizing content on platforms. Managerial implications: We offer normative guidance for content platforms seeking to enhance content quality, including offering consumers information to aid the social learning mechanism and appropriately selecting audience to mitigate the echo-chamber effect. Additionally, we propose payment schemes based on content popularity as an effective means to encourage content providers to improve quality. Funding: This work was supported by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council [General Research Fund 16502920]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0533 .

What kind of education research was funded by the government in China? A decade-long investigation (2010–2020)

PurposeThe key purpose of this study is to systematically examine the landscape of education research funded by the National Plan of Educational Research Funding (NPERF) in China. The study aims to: (1) identify the thematic focus areas that reflect the national education agenda, (2) analyze the general funding patterns of education research projects and (3) gain insights into the distinctive nature of the research agenda in China. The study employs a rigorous data-driven approach to offer valuable insights into the dynamic discourses within the field of education research in China, which has received relatively little attention despite its potential significance.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, we utilized word co-occurrence analysis and corpus-based frequency analysis to analyze the research projects funded by the National Plan of Educational Research Funding (NPERF) from 2011 to 2020.FindingsThe key characteristics of these projects highlight the focus on higher education research, addressing the interests of specific cohorts of students, teachers and disadvantaged populations. Furthermore, these projects demonstrate a remarkable responsiveness to the policy needs of the country and a robust inclination toward an international comparative framework.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings offer valuable insights into the landscape and features of funded education research in China, revealing a strong emphasis on addressing practical needs and enhancing the capacity of the education system in the country.Originality/valueThis paper presents a systematic examination of the topics covered in funded research under the National Plan of Educational Research Funding (NPERF) scheme from 2011 to 2020. It contributes to the advancement of understanding regarding knowledge traditions and practices in the Chinese context. Methodologically, this paper is the first in the literature to be prototyped with a word co-occurrence analysis approach to systematically investigate the funded education research in China. Additionally, it includes the development of a comprehensive corpus list to uncover the key characteristics of the funded projects. The analysis provides unique insights into the priorities and directions of education research supported by the Chinese government, which are of potential interest to international readers.

The complexity of funding rare disease research: an IRDiRC assessment of the landscape

The complexity of the funding landscape for rare diseases (RD) research is due to many factors. Each type of funder has strategic goals guiding its investments. The International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) convened RD experts to explore contributing factors and investment principles in RD funding. This report includes the Task Force’s findings. Similar to IRDiRC’s previous work on motivating factors for company investments in RD research, the current Task Force found that return on investment (ROI) was a guiding principle. However, within the broader RD funding landscape, the definition of ROI varied between types of funders. While they shared funding requirements (e.g., scientific quality, health economics), funders employed both major investment and venture-type instruments, demonstrating the ongoing need for flexibility in supporting RD funding. These observations warrant further analysis of the interactions and partnerships among all actors of RD research and the sustainability of RD research funding.

Mellan disciplin och profession.

This article describes and analyzes the formation of subject didactic research through the interaction between different disciplinary starting points and the new demands for profession-oriented interdisciplinary research fields, with subject didactics serving as an example. The focus is on the early development of literature didactics in Sweden. The main research question is: How have early internal factors, such as the discipline of literary studies, and external factors, including changes in the school system, education policy, or the social climate in general, influenced or contributed to the repertoire of research questions, methods, and theories within the field now known as literature didactics? The material analyzed, from the perspective of the history and sociology of science, consists of the scientific production from two early literary didactic contributions (1960–1980). The results follow two lines. The first formulates and develops subject didactic relevant issues from interdisciplinary starting points. The second develops subject didactic research based on the practical aspects of school teaching. Both lines of development in subject didactic research are strengthened and accelerated by external research funding, which also brings them closer together in several respects. The results are discussed based on Fensham's (2003) criteria for when a subject didactic research field can be considered established, Bernstein's (2003) dichotomy between singularities and regions, and Abbot's (2001) fractal theory for the development of new disciplines and research areas. The main conclusion is that the heterogeneity of the current field, in terms of paradigmatic orientations, and its homogeneity in certain theoretical starting points and recurring questions, can be clarified through this prehistory.