In-house Expertise Research Articles

Successful Rigless Subsea Stimulation in Asia Using Novel Well-Access Technology and a Fully Integrated Service Model

Summary A successful rigless subsea stimulation was executed during 2018, with the intervention performed on three target wells offshore of Sabah Malaysia, at a water depth of approximately 1400 m (4,593 ft). Significant changes in reservoir performance prompted an acid-stimulation and scale-squeeze treatment, designed to remedy fines migration and scaling issues within the well and production system. Treatment fluids were delivered subsea by an open-water hydraulic access system, using a hybrid coiled tubing downline (HCTD). Access to the subsea trees was enabled by a novel choke-access technology, allowing for a flexible, cost-efficient, and low-risk intervention. The intervention system was installed on a multiservice vessel, with the downline deployed via the vessel moonpool. A second support vessel was used as required to provide additional fluid capacity without disturbing primary intervention operations. This enhanced the flexibility of the operation, accommodating potential changes in the treatment plan without impact to critical path-stimulation activities. The full intervention was delivered as an integrated service, with all elements supplied by a single provider, via one contract. An established network of in-house equipment, expertise, test laboratories, and operational bases supported the planning and execution of the project. This was complemented by select external providers for vessels, remotely operated vehicle services, and other specialist contractors. The challenges faced during execution included completion of a comprehensive treatment fluid test program, importation and logistics of equipment from around the globe, and managing operational risks, all within a condensed timeline to satisfy a brief intervention window. A collaborative solution was developed that combined the resources of the service provider, inclusion of performance-based elements within the contract, and delivery of an efficient and flexible well-access technology that supported rapid mobilization and alleviated operational risk. Post-stimulation well testing confirmed an average increase in oil productivity of 86%, with a corresponding productivity-index factor gain of 3.4. These results confirm the appropriateness of open-water hydraulic access using coiled tubing (CT) for performing cost-effective stimulations on complex subsea wells.

Implementation Plan in Response to the Board-Endorsed Recommendations from the IEO Evaluation Report on IMF Advice on Unconventional Monetary Policies

This Management Implementation Plan was prepared before COVID-19 became a global pandemic and resulted in unprecedented strains in global trade, commodity and financial markets. The actions in the plan and their timeline, therefore, do not reflect the implications of these developments and related policy priorities. This MIP includes a package of self-reinforcing actions that aim to: • Strengthen in-house expertise on monetary policy • Deepen the work on UMP and related policies • Further strengthen financial spillover analysis • Explore ways to enhance the Fund’s traction

A Multi-Scale, Participatory Approach to Developing a Protected Area Wetland Inventory in South Africa

Given limited time, staffing and specialist expertise, management of wetlands within biodiversity-rich protected areas of developing countries is often held back by a lack of information on the extent and nature of wetland resources. Rapid, realistic and effective wetland ecosystem assessment methods are needed to develop a baseline for monitoring that detects trends and guides management. Lack of available in-house wetland expertise stimulated a novel team which harnessed wide-ranging complementary and, ultimately, indispensable expertise, spanning all branches of the park, including park management and rangers, Scientific Services and Biodiversity Social Projects. Within a year, the team developed a sufficiently comprehensive inventory which captured the variation of wetlands present in Mountain Zebra National Park, South Africa. A total of 267 wetlands were mapped, while 62 were visited in the field and assessed through rapid verification. Careful collation of existing data and imagery informed a catchment approach, an emphasis on wetland-landscape connectivity, and strategic targeting of a sub-set of important and representative sites deserving of targeted, high effort field assessment. The remaining wetlands not visited in the field were subject to desktop review. Overall, this resulted in a comprehensive overview assessment of the entire Park at multiple scales. The approach of convening a multi-disciplinary team supports strengthened governance and integrated implementation of the findings into park planning, management and rehabilitation. The process provides a potential template for rolling out similar work in other parks and other areas that have limited funding and capacity.

The Pros and Cons of the Use of Altmetrics in Research Assessment

Many indicators derived from the web have been proposed to supplement citation-based indicators in support of research assessments. These indicators, often called altmetrics, are available commercially from Altmetric.com and Elsevier’s Plum Analytics or can be collected directly. These organisations can also deliver altmetrics to support institutional self-evaluations. The potential advantages of altmetrics for research evaluation are that they may reflect important non-academic impacts and may appear before citations when an article is published, thus providing earlier impact evidence. Their disadvantages often include susceptibility to gaming, data sparsity, and difficulties translating the evidence into specific types of impact. Despite these limitations, altmetrics have been widely adopted by publishers, apparently to give authors, editors and readers insights into the level of interest in recently published articles. This article summarises evidence for and against extending the adoption of altmetrics to research evaluations. It argues that whilst systematically-gathered altmetrics are inappropriate for important formal research evaluations, they can play a role in some other contexts. They can be informative when evaluating research units that rarely produce journal articles, when seeking to identify evidence of novel types of impact during institutional or other self-evaluations, and when selected by individuals or groups to support narrative-based non-academic claims. In addition, Mendeley reader counts are uniquely valuable as early (mainly) scholarly impact indicators to replace citations when gaming is not possible and early impact evidence is needed. Organisations using alternative indicators need recruit or develop in-house expertise to ensure that they are not misused, however. Policy highlightsAltmetrics, or alternative indicators for research outputs, have been proposed as a partial solution to two research management problems: (a) assessing the societal impacts of research, and (b) obtaining early impact evidence. This article reviews the evidence and finds limited support for (a) but strong support for (b). Organisations will need to assess whether the value provided by alternative indicators in terms of helping to provide data so support research assessments is sufficient for their financial and time costs. Those using alternative indicators will deed to develop in-house expertise so that they can be used responsibly and interpreted effectively.

Implementation Plan in Response to The Board-Endorsed Recommendations From The IEO Evaluation Report on IMF Advice on Unconventional Monetary Policies

The Management Implementation Plan was prepared before COVID-19 became a global pandemic and resulted in unprecedented strains in global trade, commodity, and financial markets. The actions in this plan and their timeline, therefore, do not reflect the implications of these developments and related policy priorities. The actions aim to: Strengthen in-house expertise on monetary policy; Deepen the work on UMP and related policies; Further strengthen financial spillover analysis; Explore ways to enhance the Fund’s traction.

Community science: A typology and its implications for governance of social-ecological systems

There is an increasing recognition globally of the role to be played by community science –scientific research and monitoring driven and controlled by local communities, and characterized by place-based knowledge, social learning, collective action and empowerment. In particular, community science can support social-ecological system transformation, and help in achieving better ‘fit’ between ecological systems and governance, at local and higher levels of decision making. This paper draws on three examples of communities as central actors in the process of knowledge co-production to present a typology of community science, and to deduce a set of key principles/conditions for success. The typology involves three social learning models in which the community acquires scientific knowledge by (1) engaging with external bodies, (2) drawing on internal volunteer scientific expertise, and/or (3) hiring (or contracting) in-house professional scientific expertise. All of these models share the key characteristic that the local community decides with whom they wish to engage, and in each case, social learning is fundamental. Some conditions that facilitate community science include: community-driven and community-control; flexibility across leadership models; connection to place and collective values; empowerment, agency and collective action; credible trust; local knowledge; and links to governance. Community science is not a panacea for effecting change at the local level, and there is need for critical assessment of how it can help to fill governance gaps. Nevertheless, a considerable body of experience globally illustrates how local communities are drawing effectively on community science for better conservation and livelihood outcomes, in a manner compatible with broader trends toward ecosystem-based management and local stewardship.

Getting More Bang for Your Buck: Working with Your Vendor in the Age of the Shrinking Staff

ABSTRACT Library expenditures for serials continue to grow, while, at the same time, library staffing for serials operations is declining. During NASIG’s 34th annual conference, a librarian and two serial vendors presented on the value of working together to optimize results for libraries with shrinking serials staff. Sara Bahnmaier, a librarian at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (U-M), reported on realignment of staff positions in the Technical Services division and how the library relies on subscription agencies to manage its serials accounts. Bill Sherfey, Regional Manager for Harrassowitz, a long-term vendor of the U-M Library, presented about the training and in-house expertise that a vendor offers to libraries in these times of lean staffing. Maria Hatfield, Vice President of Integrated Solutions at WT Cox Information Services, addressed how to establish an effective new vendor-library relationship to ensure the library gets the most support possible. These presentations support the NASIG tradition of building and improving relationships among librarians, vendors, and publishers, all important links in the supply chain of information services.

Science underpinning the safety case of deep geological repositories − challenges in the past and in the future and how to maintain knowledge and competence during operation

Final repositories for spent nuclear fuel are approaching implementation. A prerequisite for these advancements is that it has been shown that the repository can be constructed and operated in practice in such a way that safety can be assured both during operation and over very long time scales. The success rests on decades of structured and objective-driven research and development. A key element of the research strategy has been to ensure adequate in-house competence and expertise. Also, openness and international cooperation are essential. Workable procedures for data qualification, version control as well as internal and external peer review have gained importance. When the programmes now enter a new phase of construction and operation new challenges will arise. Even if the implementing organisations would need to keep a core competence on post closure safety assessment international cooperation will be even more important on developing, sharing and managing the knowledge needed.

Innovating a Large Design Education Program at a University of Technology

Over the last half century, design education has diversified and developed considerably, in part in the arts academies, and increasingly in universities and vocational technical education. The TU Delft design program was founded in 1969, and has since grown quickly into a large, university-based, technology-aligned set of programs presently housing 2000 students and 100 academic staff. In the 50 years the Delft program changed due to: (1) changes in societal demand (from products, via services, to the systemic level of societal challenges), (2) the maturing of design as an academic discipline between science and engineering, and (3) international developments of the educational system (e.g., the Bologna agreement). In this paper we describe the development of this program within the broader disciplinary context of TU Delft, and how it brought together engineering, social sciences, and business studies in project-based education. We draw lessons from a unique position, made possible by this large scale and positioning next to engineering sciences. This position supported a large pool of in-house expertise; it fostered an intertwining of education, research, and practices in the industrial and wider societal context. And it also posed challenges of making design education work at a large scale.

Addressing the data guardian and geospatial scientist collaborator dilemma: how to share health records for spatial analysis while maintaining patient confidentiality

BackgroundThe utility of being able to spatially analyze health care data in near-real time is a growing need. However, this potential is often limited by the level of in-house geospatial expertise. One solution is to form collaborative partnerships between the health and geoscience sectors. A challenge in achieving this is how to share data outside of a host institution’s protection protocols without violating patient confidentiality, and while still maintaining locational geographic integrity. Geomasking techniques have been previously championed as a solution, though these still largely remain an unavailable option to institutions with limited geospatial expertise. This paper elaborates on the design, implementation, and testing of a new geomasking tool Privy, which is designed to be a simple yet efficient mechanism for health practitioners to share health data with geospatial scientists while maintaining an acceptable level of confidentiality. The basic premise of Privy is to move the important coordinates to a different geography, perform the analysis, and then return the resulting hotspot outputs to the original landscape.ResultsWe show that by transporting coordinates through a combination of random translations and rotations, Privy is able to preserve location connectivity among spatial point data. Our experiments with typical analytical scenarios including spatial point pattern analysis and density analysis shows that, along with protecting spatial privacy, Privy maintains the spatial integrity of data which reduces information loss created due to data augmentation.ConclusionThe results from this study suggests that along with developing new mathematical techniques to augment geospatial health data for preserving confidentiality, simple yet efficient software solutions can be developed to enable collaborative research among custodians of medical and health data records and GIS experts. We have achieved this by developing Privy, a tool which is already being used in real-world situations to address the spatial confidentiality dilemma.

Healthy public policy competences for public health: interactive and practice-oriented curriculum

Abstract Background Developing and implementing healthy public policy (HPP) is one of the practical competences expected of public health professionals in Europe and beyond (ASPHER 2018, Public Health Agency of Canada 2015, US Public Health Foundation 2014). Yet, organizational practices in building public health capacity to promote HPP are seldom documented. In order to improve its HPP interventions, the Montreal Public Health Unit has been leading and evaluating a HPP multidisciplinary community of practice since 2014. In response to participants’ requests, we recently formalized a HPP curriculum. Objectives Over a period of 12 months in 2018-2019, our objectives were to: (1) develop and pre-test a competency-based professional development curriculum in HPP for public health staff and interns (2) provide a repository of relevant references (3) identify dynamic pedagogical strategies applicable to a community of practice. Results As community of practice members and facilitators, we developed a HPP curriculum with the support of pedagogical and HPP experts. It was pre-tested and iteratively adjusted with members of the community of practice. We drew content from various disciplines including political sciences, public health, communication studies and public relations. We identified relevant: (1) competences; (2) core concepts; (3) practical skills; (4) key references; (5) practical case studies, (6) interactive pedagogical strategies such as an open-source online learning system. Conclusions We developed an innovative healthy public policy (HPP) curriculum in order to support an existing community of practice among public health staff. Dynamic pedagogical strategies and a more formal HPP curriculum can support competence development among public health staff, and this can be achieved while relying mostly on in-house expertise. This constitutes a stimulating capacity-building initiative for the enhancement of public health core competences. Key messages Developing healthy public policy is a core practical competence expected of public health professionals. Yet, organizational practices in building healthy public policy capacity are seldom documented. Developing dynamic pedagogical strategies and a more formal healthy public policy curriculum can support competence development among public health staff, while relying mostly on in-house expertise.

Making Beautiful Music Metadata Together

This paper discusses how the Howard B. Waltz Music Library and the University of Colorado Boulder’s Metadata Services Department cooperated to resurrect and complete a long-dormant retrospective conversion cataloging project involving musical scores and vinyl records. It addresses the resources that both groups brought to the relationship; the collaborative process by which decisions were made; the implementation plan and challenges; and how fostering a culture of customer service within the Metadata Services Department contributed to the project’s success. It also contrasts Colorado’s project with two other cooperative music cataloging projects and explains how its approach can serve as a model to other libraries who have significant cataloging backlogs or hidden collections but may feel hindered by the lack of specialized in-house cataloging expertise.

Intellectual property management at the National Animal Science Research Institute in India: A case study

Aim:The National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Disease Informatics is an animal science research institute under the aegis of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. The intellectual property management system (IPMS) of the institute oversees technology creation, protection, and transfer/commercialization. This study reviews the effectiveness of the IPMS using traditional strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) evaluation.Materials and Methods:A comprehensive repository was developed to compile the SWOT pertaining to the IPMS based on relevant document reviews and the inputs of experts and stakeholders. The repository was shared among scientists of the institute for rating. The rating process revealed the top ten key SWOT associated with the structure and operation of the IPMS. The weighted SWOT matrix technique was used to identify the best strategies to improve and develop the IPMS further. This included strategies derived from the best combinations of key strengths and opportunities (S-O strategies), key weaknesses and opportunities (W-O strategies), key strengths and threats (S-T strategies), and key weaknesses and threats (W-T strategies).Results:The top-ranked strengths included “possession of patented technology” and “state-of-the-art biosafety laboratory facilities,” while “lack of in-house faculty with legal expertise in intellectual property rights (IPR)” and “lack of technology incubation facilities” were the key weaknesses. The key opportunities included “external funding for research projects” and “market demand for onsite diagnostic tools.” The major threats were “lack of market for veterinary diagnostics” and “broad-based patents on research tools and technologies.”Conclusion:The strengths of the system, such as a state-of-the-art biosafety laboratory and technology-marketing collaboration with Agrinnovate India Ltd., could be employed effectively to gain from the opportunities tendered by the market demand for on-site disease diagnostic tools (S-O strategies). The limitation arising from a dearth of technical staff could be overcome by technological backstopping through international linkages in the area of disease monitoring and surveillance. Funding from externally supported projects could also be utilized for recruitment of personnel (W-O strategies). Limitations arising from the combination of inadequate in-house IPR expertise and the threat arising from broad-based patents on research tools warrant vigilance (W-T strategies).

Declarations of interest by members of Health Canada's special advisory committees and panels: a descriptive study.

Health Canada supplements its in-house expertise on pharmacotherapy and pharmaceutical policy through the use of scientific/expert advisory committees and scientific/expert advisory panels. This study was undertaken to examine the interests of the members of these Health Canada advisory bodies. This was an observational study of the financial and intellectual interests of members of Health Canada's scientific/expert advisory committees and panels. The following information was extracted from Health Canada websites in December 2018: member's name, name of committee/panel, direct and indirect financial interests, and intellectual interests. Information extracted about the committees and panels included the number of meetings for which a record of proceedings was available and the topics discussed at the meetings. Of 81 unique committee and panel members, 12 declared a direct financial interest, 56 an indirect financial interest and 65 an intellectual interest. Five of 11 committees and panels had people who declared a direct financial interest. All 11 advisory bodies had members who declared indirect financial interests (n = 62) and intellectual interests (n = 81). Six of the 11 committees and panels had a majority of members who declared a direct or indirect financial interest. In the 10 advisory body meetings for which information was available, individual products were rarely discussed but recommendations from all but 1 of the meetings could potentially have affected sales. Only a minority of members of Health Canada's advisory committees and panels declared direct financial interests but the majority of members of a majority of the advisory bodies declared indirect financial and intellectual interests. Because of the lack of individual voting records it was not possible to determine if financial or intellectual interests influenced voting patterns.

Why it's time for MSPs to sharpen their security focus

When huge businesses, government offices and even entire towns fall victim to data breaches, hacks and ransomware, it tends to grab the headlines. What these headlines miss is that smaller businesses are far more vulnerable to these attacks. Last year, a Ponemon Institute study on the state of cyber security found that 70% of small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) experience cyber attack attempts. 1, 2 And despite SMBs facing the same level of threat as big enterprises, over 50% don't know how to protect their businesses. Small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) are susceptible to cyber attacks because they don't have in-house expertise and they lack the deep pockets that could buy the tools and skills to protect themselves. While SMBs may feel helpless in the face of ever-more-sophisticated cyberthreats, the good news is that these companies are not alone. Just as they rely on their managed service provider (MSP) partners for their IT needs, they can also turn to MSPs to make sure their IT estates are secure. All MSPs have insight and knowledge on security, argues Tim Brown of SolarWinds MSP.

Capitalizing on Health Information Technology to Enable Advantage in U.S. Hospitals

This research examines hospital digital advantage, defined as a hospital’s technological edge relative to its competitors across a composite of technologies supporting the hospital’s various functions and processes. Drawing on Bourdieu’s forms of capital and the logic of digital options, we develop an integrative conceptual framework to identify and organize antecedents of digital advantage, which can translate to hospital performance through the creation of digital options. Focusing on the antecedents of digital advantage for our research model and hypotheses, we suggest that digital advantage is influenced by (1) economic capital, (2) institutional-arrangement-based social capital that results in knowledge sharing through information exchange networks and parent organization membership, (3) geographic-proximity-based social capital due to locational externalities that facilitate knowledge spillover, and (4) cultural capital that reflects the hospital’s health information technology (HIT) knowledge stock. Our findings, based on the aggregate adoption of 90 HITs by 953 hospitals, support main effects; complementary effects of the two forms of social capital; and substitutive effects between (1) economic capital and other forms of capital such that cultural capital and both types of social capital mitigate the effects of inadequate economic capital, and between (2) institutional-arrangement-based social capital and cultural capital such that knowledge shared through institutional arrangements mitigates the effects of having inadequate in-house HIT expertise. We also provide preliminary evidence to show that hospital digital advantage is positively associated with hospital performance.

Close to home: building in-house security expertise

Information security is now such a critical part of an organisation's ability to manage risk that it pays to have skilled and knowledgeable people on hand to guide, advise and deal with issues. But as everyone knows, cyber security skills are in short supply and firms have trouble hanging on to the experienced security experts they have. So what do they do about this? In this interview, Matt Lorentzen, principal security consultant at Trustwave SpiderLabs, outlines the current state of in-house security skills within organisations, where they're falling short and what can be done about it, particularly in terms of upskilling existing staff.

Development of an Electronic Data Collection System to Support a Large-Scale HIV Behavioral Intervention Trial: Protocol for an Electronic Data Collection System.

BackgroundAdvancing technology has increased functionality and permitted more complex study designs for behavioral interventions. Investigators need to keep pace with these technological advances for electronic data capture (EDC) systems to be appropriately executed and utilized at full capacity in research settings. Mobile technology allows EDC systems to collect near real-time data from study participants, deliver intervention directly to participants’ mobile devices, monitor staff activity, and facilitate near real-time decision making during study implementation.ObjectiveThis paper presents the infrastructure of an EDC system designed to support a multisite HIV biobehavioral intervention trial in Los Angeles and New Orleans: the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network “Comprehensive Adolescent Research & Engagement Studies” (ATN CARES). We provide an overview of how multiple EDC functions can be integrated into a single EDC system to support large-scale intervention trials.MethodsThe CARES EDC system is designed to monitor and document multiple study functions, including, screening, recruitment, retention, intervention delivery, and outcome assessment. Text messaging (short message service, SMS) and nearly all data collection are supported by the EDC system. The system functions on mobile phones, tablets, and Web browsers.ResultsATN CARES is enrolling study participants and collecting baseline and follow-up data through the EDC system. Besides data collection, the EDC system is being used to generate multiple reports that inform recruitment planning, budgeting, intervention quality, and field staff supervision. The system is supporting both incoming and outgoing text messages (SMS) and offers high-level data security. Intervention design details are also influenced by EDC system platform capabilities and constraints. Challenges of using EDC systems are addressed through programming updates and training on how to improve data quality.ConclusionsThere are three key considerations in the development of an EDC system for an intervention trial. First, it needs to be decided whether the flexibility provided by the development of a study-specific, in-house EDC system is needed relative to the utilization of an existing commercial platform that requires less in-house programming expertise. Second, a single EDC system may not provide all functionality. ATN CARES is using a main EDC system for data collection, text messaging (SMS) interventions, and case management and a separate Web-based platform to support an online peer support intervention. Decisions need to be made regarding the functionality that is crucial for the EDC system to handle and what functionality can be handled by other systems. Third, data security is a priority but needs to be balanced with the need for flexible intervention delivery. For example, ATN CARES is delivering text messages (SMS) to study participants’ mobile phones. EDC data security protocols should be developed under guidance from security experts and with formative consulting with the target study population as to their perceptions and needs.International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)DERR1-10.2196/10777

A new approach to public health research funding

BackgroundThe National Institute for Health Research Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC) is the UK's largest funder of public health research. NETSCC is exploring new methods to identify important areas of research to commission aiming for research that is high quality, serves stakeholders (including policy and decision makers), and is unconstrained by traditional programme boundaries. Here we describe such an approach that aims to explore a new approach to public health research funding. MethodsNETSCC develops commissioning briefs to prompt researchers to apply for funding. A new approach is being tested on a small number of key health challenges including tobacco. The new approach is to co-produce and co-create the commissioning brief involving a wide range of stakeholders. Topics are identified and prioritised systematically on the basis of the value of research; burden of disease; degree of uncertainty; and cost to society and the health system. Tobacco was chosen because it remains the UK's single greatest cause of preventable illness, avoidable death, and health inequalities, and there remain important unanswered questions. In-house expertise was used to scope the area and write an initial draft; this was sent to peer reviewers for feedback involving, in addition to the usual academics, evidence-users including directors of public health, local government councillors, and Action on Smoking and Health. The brief was taken to two national committees (Public Health England's Tobacco Control Plan Implementation Board and the Cancer Research UK Tobacco Advisory Board) and to the NETSCC's Programme Directors meeting. At each stage the brief was redrafted in response to comments received allowing continual development. FindingsThe wide range of peer reviewers and committees welcomed involvement in the process. Reviewers gave useful responses and the committees gave sufficient agenda time for engaged discussion. This approach is generalisable to other research calls and will aid the development of NETSCC commissioning. InterpretationNETSCC are developing a flexible and responsive process to address identified research needs. The final commissioning brief will ask for research in a range of areas relevant to end-users' needs in a rapidly changing field. Once advertised (in about November, 2018) its success will be measured by the number of applications and how many are fundable. FundingNone.

Scrum for Product Innovation: A Longitudinal Embedded Case Study

This article describes the innovation processes used in a partnership between Add Latent Ltd., an asset integrity and maintenance management consulting services provider in the energy sector and University of Salford. The challenge faced by the company is to make their in-house expertise more readily available to a worldwide audience. A longitudinal embedded case study has been used to investigate how installable desktop software applications have been redesigned to create a new set of cloud hosted software services. The innovation team adapted an agile scrum process to include exploratory prototyping and manage the geographical distribution of the team members. A minimum viable product was developed that integrated functional elements of previous software tools into an end-to-end data collection, analysis and visualisation product called AimHi which uses a cloud-hosted web services approach. Field trials were conducted using the software at the Uniper, Isle of Grain power station in Kent, UK. Enhancements were made to the AimHi product which was adopted for use at the Uniper site. The product emerged from a Knwledge Transfer Partnership whci was evaluated on cmplettion by InnovateUK and awarded the highest possible “outstanding” grade. The article illustrates how the scrum software development method was tailored for a product innovation context. Extended periods of evaluation and reflection, prototyping and requirement refinement were combined with periods of incremental feature development using sprints. The AimHi product emerged from a technology transfer and innovation project that has successfully reconciled conflicting demands from customers, universities, partner companies and project staff members.