International Research Agenda Research Articles

Development of a Refugee Health Research Agenda in North America.

The lack of a cohesive, stakeholder-informed refugee health research agenda has been a barrier to promoting, funding, and conducting health research with refugee populations in North America. A cross-sectional study was conducted among individuals working in refugee health in North America (N = 93) to describe major domains within the field of refugee health research and to develop refugee health research priorities. Open-ended survey questions included: (1) What research topics specific to refugee research would you like to see in an international research agenda? (2) Please describe current and important gaps that you believe exist in refugee research and why? Overarching themes focused on the need for the development of research partnerships with refugee communities that are intentional, effective, and driven by the needs of refugee communities. The survey also identified a need for best practices in creating sustainable, community-based research partnerships (effective models and evidence-based strategies) that translate across 12 domains. The refugee health research priorities for North America described in this manuscript should continue to be modified over time as political, economic, social, and medical contexts change.

Setting the international research agenda for sarcomas with patients and carers: results of phase II of the Sarcoma Patient Advocacy Global Network (SPAGN) priority setting partnership

BackgroundTypically, researchers and clinicians determine the agenda in sarcoma research. However, patient involvement can have a meaningful impact on research. Therefore, the Patient-Powered Research Network (PPRN) of the Sarcoma Patient Advocacy Global Network (SPAGN) set up a Priority Setting Partnership (PSP). The primary objective of this partnership is to identify priorities for research and patient advocacy topics.MethodsIn the first phase of this PSP, including 264 sarcoma patients and carers from all over the world, 23 research topics regarding sarcomas and 15 patient advocacy topics were identified using an online survey. In the second phase, participants were asked to fill in a top five and a top three of research and patient advocacy topics, respectively. Additionally, sociodemographic characteristics and sarcoma characteristics were collected. Social media channels, local national patient advocacy groups and the SPAGN website were used to distribute the survey.ResultsIn total, 671 patients (75%) and carers (25%) participated in this survey. The five highest ranked research topics were related to causes of sarcoma (43%), prognosis and risk of recurrence (40%), specific subtypes of sarcoma (33%), the role of immunotherapy, targeted therapy and combined therapy (30%), and hereditary aspects (30%). The three highest ranked patient advocacy topics were improving the diagnostic process of sarcoma (39%), access to tumor DNA analysis (37%) and establishing an international sarcoma registry (37%).ConclusionsThis sarcoma PSP has identified priorities for research and patient advocacy, offering guidance for researchers, assisting funding agencies with assessing project relevance and empowering patient advocates to represent the needs of patients and carers.

Ecosystem service research in the dry subtropics: Current state, temporal changes and drivers of regional variability

Dry subtropical (DST) regions that share similar climatic and topographic conditions exhibit today significant disparities in population density, agricultural intensity, wealth and cultural values. In addition, they are also facing increasing pressures on their natural resources. These attributes collectively shape individuals' varying dependence on natural resources and may influence their perception of ecosystem services (ES). In this study, we conducted a systematic literature review, focusing on the DST regions, to address two main questions: 1) What is the current state, temporal trends and regional variability in scientific research on ES and 2) What are the potential drivers of the variability in ES research? Amongst the 471 publications found in our review, 53% focused on provisioning services, followed nearly equally by cultural (33%) and regulating (30%) services. Only 13% addressed more than one ES category and approximately 33% mentioned economic valuation. Our study reveals that research on ES in the dry subtropics experienced a significant increase from 2005 onwards. Approximately 45% of the publications included the term 'ecosystem service' and its frequency has risen substantially over time. Most publications primarily focus on African dry subtropics (over 60%), followed by South and North American ones. Publications from southern Asia and NE Australia were more scarce. Importantly, we found no clear relationship between the number of publications, publication density or representativeness and the variables used as indicators of human pressure (e.g. population density). Consequently, research efforts in the DST regions appear to be influenced by a diverse range of financial and institutional constraints, international research agendas, as well as the personal interests of researchers, contributing to the idiosyncratic nature of this field.

Reducing the global burden of cerebral venous thrombosis: An international research agenda.

Due to the rarity of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT), performing high-quality scientific research in this field is challenging. Providing answers to unresolved research questions will improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, and ultimately translate to a better outcome of patients with CVT. We present an international research agenda, in which the most important research questions in the field of CVT are prioritized. This research agenda has three distinct goals: (1) to provide inspiration and focus to research on CVT for the coming years, (2) to reinforce international collaboration, and (3) to facilitate the acquisition of research funding. This international research agenda is the result of a research summit organized by the International Cerebral Venous Thrombosis Consortium in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in June 2023. The summit brought together 45 participants from 15 countries including clinical researchers from various disciplines, patients who previously suffered from CVT, and delegates from industry and non-profit funding organizations. The research agenda is categorized into six pre-specified themes: (1) epidemiology and clinical features, (2) life after CVT, (3) neuroimaging and diagnosis, (4) pathophysiology, (5) medical treatment, and (6) endovascular treatment. For each theme, we present two to four research questions, followed by a brief substantiation per question. The research questions were prioritized by the participants of the summit through consensus discussion. This international research agenda provides an overview of the most burning research questions on CVT. Answering these questions will advance our understanding and management of CVT, which will ultimately lead to improved outcomes for CVT patients worldwide.

French grassroots volunteer organizations and prospective: Challenges and avenues for nonprofit research

AbstractThis article explores the importance of prospective for practitioners in the sector of grassroots volunteer organizations (GVOs, as associations). Prospective can be defined as an attitude of studying the future that must lead to action. In this, in times of crisis, prospective seems crucial and the GVOs' point of view can open a research agenda. The French case of GVOs deserves more attention because of their characteristics (e.g., 90% of GVOs have no employees, 75% of them have an annual budget of less than 10,000 euros), their relationship with the public authorities and their strong social impact on the community. The scenarios of evolution of the GVOs sector proposed by La Fonda are analyzed and become filters for the reading of the French literature dedicated to GVOs. They lead to four lines of research (isomorphism; normalization and standardization; evaluation and impact; organizational capacities). Following this, a research agenda dedicated to French GVOs is proposed. This work has intrinsic implications, conducting a literature review and proposing a research agenda compared to international agendas. It highlights the challenges GVOs face and the differences between desirable research in France and international research agendas. It constitutes possible inspirations for GVOs leaders thanks to a synoptic table.

Enhancing global insight into AMR spread and generation: prospects and limitations of the WHO and quadripartite research agendas.

In Summer 2023, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)-United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) WHO-World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) Quadripartite published two separate research agendas on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). While the publication of these research agendas on AMR creates a significant opportunity to align research priorities internationally, we emphasize a number of limitations. Firstly, the production of two separate AMR research agendas, in human health and One Health, rather than one integrated research agenda, risks the continued deprioritization of the One Health agenda. Furthermore, neither research agenda addressed the need to study the relationship between climate change and AMR despite growing evidence to suggest this may be significant. Finally, there are also missed opportunities in directing the study of appropriate treatment regimens and in clarifying the overall most resource-efficient path to combatting AMR. Moving forward, the international research agenda for AMR needs to be continually redefined in an inclusive, transparent and independent manner. This could be the task of the proposed, but so far not realized, Independent Panel on Evidence for Action against AMR.

Identifying sports chiropractic global research priorities: an international Delphi study of sports chiropractors

ObjectivesDeveloping a research agenda is one method to facilitate broad research planning and prioritise research within a discipline. Despite profession-specific agendas, none have specifically addressed the research needs of the...

Portuguese research on physical education and sport didactics-a critical discussion.

This article presents a discussion of research in Physical Education and Sport Didactics in Portugal. It starts by situating it from an historical perspective, placing the 1980s as the beginning era, mainly based on the studies provided by the two first Physical Education higher education institutes of the country. The initial research, first based on master and doctoral dissertations, progressed to ongoing projects that have been disseminated in international and national journals and books. This development is also reported from the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological perspectives, showing how it has informed the quality of Physical Education and teacher education as the two main research strands to be described, however, acknowledging that a strand on sports coaching and coach education exists. On teaching Physical Education, the article discusses the elements relative to the teacher and to the student, focusing from the immediate and short-term to the distant and long-term events that lead into young adulthood's active lifestyles. In this analysis, research on curriculum and assessment are also reported. On physical education teacher education, the article shows the prevalence of the post-primary Physical Education to argue for the need for more research on primary-level education, and discusses the diverse foci from initial teacher education to in-service education practises. In line with current trends in research, we suggest a set of four features for the future research agenda: (1) addressing short to long-term outcomes of Physical Education; (2) adopting multifactorial and multi-layered perspectives of analysis; (3) embracing inter- and multidisciplinary designs; and (4) taking comparative perspectives within and between European countries, and between Europe and other continents. We conclude that these features need to focus on four levels of integration and cooperation: (a) integration between the research initiatives and the needs of the professional field; (b) integration between research on teaching and learning, teacher education and the curriculum; (c) cooperation between the different national higher education and professional institutions; and (d) integration in the international research agenda by leading and participating in project partnerships which are needed to fully and effectively implement such agenda.

Social Milieus and Social Integration. From Theoretical Considerations to an Empirical Model

Current debates on threats to social integration in times of multiple crises call for a better understanding of the relationship between socioeconomic inequality and sociocultural value conflicts. The aim of this article is to (re)introduce the concept of social milieus as a promising approach to capture the complexity of this relationship at the group level. We offer a theoretical extension of the concept of social milieus, which has so far been limited to the German discourse, by linking it to the international debate on sociocultural “cleavages” and cultural value conflicts. Social milieus are defined as large latent groups with similar socioeconomic positions and cultural values. Accordingly, they develop milieu-specific forms of social integration in potentially conflictual demarcation from other milieus. This conceptualization offers a theoretical framework for analyzing social integration from the perspective of social groups in terms of social integration within social milieus and relationships between milieus. In order to illustrate the capabilities of this theoretical approach, we develop a first empirical model of social milieus in Germany based on a Latent Class Analysis of socioeconomic indicators and Schwartz’ basic human values. With this theoretical concept and empirical model, we put social milieus on the international research agenda for the analysis of social integration within and between social groups.

Cross-national variations in postdoc precarity: An inquiry into the role of career structures and research funding models

Insecurity and intense competition for permanent academic positions appear to be common experiences for early career researchers across the globe. With academic precarity now firmly on the international research and policy agenda, this article looks comparatively at postdoc precarity in three European countries: Ireland, Norway and Switzerland. It suggests that the career prospects and status of these early career stage researchers depend to a large extent on societal variations in academic career structures and research funding models. The article underlines the implications of an increasingly competitive academic labour market on postdoc precarity and identifies both common and specific (national and/or disciplinary) challenges facing postdocs in these different contexts.

A right to research?

A right to research?

Maritime connectivity, transport infrastructure expansion and economic growth: A global perspective

Improving transport connectivity has become increasingly significant to international trade research and transport policy agendas. Little has been done so far to investigate the direct association between maritime connectivity and economic growth, let alone the exact effect magnitude. As the connection between ports, local economies, and global logistics networks becomes ever closer, the economic role of port connectivity deserves closer attention. This paper uses the Panama Canal expansion as a quasi-natural experiment, and proposes a dynamic difference-in-differences (DID) method for making causal inferences about the impact of port connectivity on regional economic growth. This study leverages data mining of multiple sources of satellite data to provide innovative measures of ship movement, port area, and economic activity. We construct an index based on the global shipping network data from the Automatic Identification System (AIS) to measure the extent to which the ports are exposed to the canal expansion. This allows careful handling of the endogeneity problem. Change in the port area is used as a proxy for port capacity expansion, and is identified via satellite imaging. Night light data provide a measure of regional economic activity around the ports, and of the effect of port connectivity on regional economic growth. Our findings suggest that improvements in port connectivity have a significant and fairly durable stimulating effect on regional economic growth, and that port infrastructure expansion is one potential channel for realizing this effect.

Delineating early developmental pathways to ADHD: Setting an international research agenda.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent, impairing, and highly heritable condition typically diagnosed in middle childhood. However, it is now recognized that symptoms emerge much earlier in development. Research focused on understanding-using multiple units of analysis-the cascade of early-life (i.e., prenatal-infant-toddler) developmental changes that will later emerge as ADHD has the potential to transform early identification, prevention, and intervention. To this end, we introduce the recently established Early ADHD Consortium, an international network of investigators engaged in prospective, longitudinal studies of risk for ADHD beginning early in life, conducted within a developmental framework, and which incorporate multimethod approaches. This network seeks to harmonize measures and methodological approaches to increase the potential for data sharing and subsequent impact. This perspective paper highlights the importance of investigating pre-diagnostic markers of ADHD, and potential models and mechanisms of ADHD risk and development, with the long-term objective of facilitating development of preemptive interventions that will minimize the impact of ADHD symptoms on everyday functioning and maximize health and developmental outcomes. We selectively describe key challenges and questions for this field related to theoretical models and developmental mechanisms in ADHD and recommend next steps for the science, including methodological, measurement, and study design considerations. We then describe potential implications for preemptive intervention development. We conclude by considering other issues including ethical concerns and the critical value of incorporating stakeholder input. It is hoped that this perspective puts forth a research agenda that will enhance collaborative efforts and accelerate progress in understanding developmental mechanisms and the early ADHD phenotype, with implications for early intervention enhancement of healthy development for infants, young children, and their families.

Protocol for a randomised feasibility trial comparing a combined program of education and exercise versus general advice for ankle osteoarthritis

BackgroundAnkle osteoarthritis (OA) is a serious problem with high associated pain and disability. While education and exercise are recommended for the initial management of OA, this has not been investigated in ankle OA. The primary aim of this study is to establish the feasibility of running a full-scale randomised controlled trial (RCT) investigating a combined education and exercise program compared to a general advice program for people with ankle OA. The secondary aims are to collect preliminary data which will inform sample size calculations, and understand the perspectives of people with ankle OA on their participation in the trial.MethodsThirty individuals aged 35 years or older with symptomatic radiographic ankle OA will be recruited from the community and randomised to receive either a combined education and exercise program or a general advice program, both of which will be delivered by a physiotherapist in a group setting. Primary outcomes of feasibility include responses to study advertisements, number of eligible participants, recruitment rate, adherence with the intervention, fidelity of the intervention, adverse events, drop-out rate, and credibility and expectancy of the intervention. Secondary participant-reported outcomes will include global rating of change, patient acceptable symptom state, severity of ankle pain and stiffness, self-reported function, quality of life, satisfaction with treatment, and use of co-interventions. Follow up will be at 8 weeks and 3 months. Physical measures of 40 m walking speed, timed stairs descent, heel raise endurance and ankle dorsiflexion range of motion will be collected at baseline and 8 weeks. Primary feasibility outcomes will be reported descriptively, and estimates of the variability of secondary participant-reported and physical outcomes will be calculated. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with participants to understand perspectives about the intervention and participation in the trial, with data analyzed thematically.DiscussionStudy findings will establish the feasibility of running a full-scale RCT to investigate a combined education and exercise program compared to a general advice program for people with ankle OA. This study is a necessary first step to advance the international research agenda of evaluating the efficacy of exercise in the management of ankle OA.Trial registrationACTRN12623000017628. Registered 10 January 2023, https://www.anzctr.org.au/ACTRN12623000017628.aspx.

The Dynamics of Influence on Press Freedom in Different Media Systems: A Comparative Study

ABSTRACT This study focuses on contributing to the emerging international research agenda regarding press freedom, moving beyond the already established factors that relate to political and industrial norms as influences on press freedom. Its primary goal is to explore the dynamics of influence on press freedom in different media systems of the western world based on a quantitative analysis of data for 2008–2019 in 16 countries. Findings indicate that press freedom in democratic countries is severely challenged and in certain deeply worrying cases, it is steadily declining, whereas factors that influence this decline appear to be common in different, even contradictory, media systems. In addition, by examining the dynamics of influence on press freedom in different media systems, this work attempts to partially contribute to the discussion on the evolution of western media systems as regards their relationship with press freedom.

Managing cross-border knowledge transfer for innovation: An introduction to the special issue

This introduction to the special issue maps the extant research on managing crossborder knowledge for innovation and classifies it into four clusters: knowledge spillovers and location, international alliances and R&D networks, knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity, and learning organization and capabilities. The eleven articles that compose the special issue are introduced, and a future agenda for international business research is proposed.

Academic dependency: the influence of the prevailing international biomedical research agenda on Argentina’s CONICET

BackgroundThe prevailing health and biomedical sciences (HBMS) research agenda, not only determined by leading academic institutions but also by large pharmaceutical companies, has been shown to prioritize the exploration of novel pharmacological interventions over the study of the socio-environmental factors influencing illness onset and progression. The aim of this investigation is to quantitatively explore whether and to what extent the prevailing international HBMS research agenda and the key actors setting this agenda influence research in non-core countries. MethodsWe used the Web of Science database and the CorText platform to proxy the HBMS research agenda of a prestigious research institution from Latin America: Argentina’s National Research Council (CONICET). We conducted a bibliometric and lexical analysis of 16,309 HBMS academic articles whereby CONICET was among the authors' affiliations. The content of CONICET’s agenda was represented through co-occurrence network maps of the most frequent concatenation of terms found in titles, keywords, and abstracts. We compared our findings with previous reports on the international HBMS research agenda. ResultsIn line with the results previously reported for the prevailing international agenda, we found that terms linked to molecular biology and cancer research hegemonize CONICET’s HBMS research agenda, whereas terms connecting HBMS research with socio-environmental cues are marginal. However, we also found differences with the international agenda: CONICET's HBMS agenda shows a marginal presence of terms linked to translational medicine, while terms associated with categories such as pathogens, plant research, agrobiotechnology, and food industry are more represented than in the prevailing agenda. ConclusionsCONICET’s HBMS research agenda shares topics, priorities, and methodologies with the prevailing HBMS international research agenda. However, CONICET's HBMS research agenda is internally heterogeneous, appearing to be mostly driven by a combination of elements that not only reflect academic dependency (the adoption of the prevailing research agenda by non-core research institutions) but also local economic determinants associated with Argentina’s place in the international division of labor as an exporter of primary goods.

Contextualizing Necessity Entrepreneurship: A Cross-National, Comparative Perspective

While the comparative international entrepreneurship literature has explored the effects of national context on the discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of market opportunities, less comparative work has examined the national characteristics that drive the intensity of needs-based pushes into self-employment. To fill this gap, we apply a needs-based perspective to explain the wide cross-national diversity in levels of own-account self-employment across 167 country cases. Our results provide evidence that a needs-based lens offers an important framework to not only compare the conditions of self-employment between developing and developed country settings, but also to identify significant variation within the developing world itself. By splitting our global sample in half by income level, we find that the institutional-based causal conditions that explain cross-national variation in the scale of own-account self-employment are only recognized if the world’s poorest countries are included in comparative analysis. In the discussion section, we address the issue of country-level selective sampling bias to advance a more inclusive international entrepreneurship research agenda that includes the analysis of needs, as well as opportunities, when comparing national contexts.

Setting the international research agenda for sarcoma together with patients and carers: first results of the Sarcoma Patient EuroNet (SPAEN) priority setting partnership

BackgroundResearch in sarcomas has historically been the domain of scientists and clinicians attempting to understand the disease to develop effective treatments. This traditional approach of placing scientific rigor before the patient’s reality is changing. This evolution is reflected in the growth of patient-centered organizations and patient advocacy groups that seek to meaningfully integrate patients into the research process. The aims of this study are to identify the unanswered questions regarding sarcomas (including gastrointestinal stromal tumors and desmoid fibromatosis) from patient, carer, and clinical perspectives and examine how patients and carers want to be involved in sarcoma research.MethodsThe Patient-Powered Research Network of Sarcoma Patients EuroNet set up a Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) in collaboration with stakeholders from the sarcoma research field. This PSP is largely based on the James Lind Alliance methodology.ResultsIn total, 264 sarcoma patients (73%) and carers (27%) from all over the world participated in the online survey and covered the full spectrum of sarcomas. The topics mentioned were labeled in accordance with the Common Scientific Outline of the International Cancer Research Partnership and lists for potential research topics, advocacy topics, and requests for information were constructed. With regard to patient and carer involvement, 64% were very willing to be actively involved and mainly in the following areas: sharing perspectives, discussing patient-clinician interactions, and attending research meetings.ConclusionsThe first results of this sarcoma PSP identified important research questions, but also important topics for patient advocacy groups and further improvement of information materials. Sarcoma patients and carers have a strong wish to be involved in multiple aspects of sarcoma research. The next phase will identify the top 10 research priorities per tumor type. These priorities will provide guidance for research that will achieve greatest value and impact.

A systematic international entrepreneurship review and future research agenda

PurposeInternational entrepreneurship (IE) has received a considerable amount of attention in the recent decades as a result of globalization enabling access to new international markets and business opportunities. Despite the growing increase in academic publications, IE still faces certain inconsistencies, with doubts remaining as regards its boundaries and the thematic groups making up the field. The purpose of this article is to systematically analyse the IE, mapping the intellectual territory and the evolution of the field.Design/methodology/approachIndexed to Web of Science( WoS) database until 2021, from 52 journals, 130 articles were selected, applying content analyses techniques to identify the main research lines.FindingsThe results reveal that IE presents four conceptual themes/clusters: (1) international business networks and opportunities; (2) institutional environments; (3) the characteristics and motivations of entrepreneurs; and (4) internationalisation drivers and processes. Extant analysis show that IE has progressed immensely, concentrating a good diversity of subtopics and research trends. An integrative framework bringing together 27 years of publications and 67 future research lines, detailed by cluster, were also presented in this study to improve understanding and guide future studies.Originality/valueThis review makes a broad contribution to the IE literature, assisting in consolidating the academic field, expanding and complementing the results of previous theoretical–conceptual studies. We reflect and individually discuss the state of the art of the four streams that characterize IE to identify key themes, points of convergence and advance new subfields.