Mission-oriented Programs Research Articles

Topic choice, gendered language, and the under-funding of female scholars in mission-oriented research

We investigate the participation of male and female applicants to a competition for research funding, using an original dataset with detailed information on both successful and unsuccessful applicants to 21 calls by a mission-oriented funding agency. We use this information to construct a fictitious pool of 277,464 potential applicants and to model their probability to submit an application. We find that, even after controlling for productivity, quality of research, seniority, years of career discontinuity, number of prior applications, affiliation, and ethnicity, women were still less likely to apply than men. The lower likelihood of females to apply was not explained by the use of masculine language in the text of the calls. Instead, women's research interests were more distant from the topics of the calls than men's. Topic proximity fully mediated female penalization in the likelihood to apply for research funding. These results are an important heads-up, in view of the increasing focus of governments in mission-oriented programs.

Participatory foresight and reflexive innovation: setting policy goals and developing strategies in a bottom-up, mission-oriented, sustainable way

The urgency of current social challenges is driving new approaches to framing and funding research, development, and innovation. The “mission-oriented” approach framing the EU’s New Horizons funding program is the latest institutional response to the pressing needs of large system transformations we are facing. We view the likely targets of mission-oriented programs as dynamic entities requiring both adaptive, inclusive responses, and anticipatory exploration. We demonstrate how participatory foresight methods provide an essential forum and process for the expression of plural, socio-technological imaginaries. As citizens and other stakeholder groups have demonstrated their myriad capacities to contribute to research and innovation agenda-setting processes in future-oriented citizen dialogs, we argue that such methods are the essential compliment to the mission-oriented framework coming into play. Participatory foresight engages citizens in critical thinking and creative activities to articulate the evolution of socio-technological issues over an extended time horizon, seeking diverse perspectives on what goals and priorities will come to define “missions.” Utilizing outputs from two recent projects, we argue that participatory foresight methods can play an essential role in bridging citizen needs with policy requirements, and will increase the reflexivity of innovation systems that invest the needed time and resources into exploring the depth of multi-actor interests and intersections. Finally, we outline possible impact pathways demonstrating how these “bottom-up” contributions could be integrated into the development of challenge-led innovation priorities.

Mission-oriented innovation policies: challenges and opportunities

This article focuses on the broader lessons from mission-oriented programs for innovation policy—and indeed policies aimed at investment-led growth. While much has been written about case studies on missions, this has not resulted in an alternative policy making toolkit. Missions—in the least—require those tools to be just as much about market cocreating and market shaping, as they are about market fixing. The article reviews the characteristics of mission-oriented programs, ooks at key features of those programs that can provide lessons, and discusses how to choose and implement mission-oriented policies, with an example.

Working towards a framework based on mission-oriented practices for assessing renewable energy innovation policies

Abstract Mission-oriented programs have regularly been used as innovation policies when governments (or societies) are faced with complex challenges that demand radical innovations and multiplayer coordination. Nowadays, the global climate-change question, including the energy source issue, is an example of a mission-oriented challenge. Several countries have adopted energy programs with mission-oriented characteristics. Brazil, for example, launched three programs (PAISS, PAISS 2 and Inova Energia) to foster innovations in renewable energy sources such as biofuels, solar and wind power. These programs dealt with radical innovations, big challenges and multiplayer coordination, but did not use some important mission-oriented best practices. Based on an extensive literature review, this article's aim is to present a framework developed to verify whether renewable energy innovation programs meet the requirements for being classified as mission-oriented programs. It is assumed that mission-oriented programs can contribute to the effectiveness of renewable energy innovation policies. The case of Brazil and its Inova programs is used as an example of how to apply this framework, although the latter was designed for application to any renewable energy mission-oriented program.

Promoting diversity in science in Japan through mission-oriented research grants

In this study, we quantitatively compared the impact of mission-oriented research grants and curiosity-driven grants on the diversity of research subjects in Japan. First, we examined data for Japanese principal investigators receiving research funding between 2000 and 2010 in the field of nanotechnology and materials science, and identified groups of researchers whose publication performance was positively affected by the mission-oriented grant, CREST. We then compared the effect of CREST with that of the curiosity-driven grant, KAKENHI. The analysis uses both propensity score matching and difference in differences (PSM-DID) methodologies. Our results show that for participants in the CREST program there was an increase in number of publications of more than 10% per year, for periods of both 5 and 3 years after the funding ended, even though the observed average effect on citation was not statistically significant. Second, we evaluated the diversity of research subjects through analysis of the distribution of the classification codes applied to articles published between 1996 and 2013, utilizing the J-Global database, which has the finest granularity of category among existing bibliographic scientific publication databases. Research subjects were better conserved under the mission-oriented program than the curiosity-driven one, a finding contrary to predictions of conventional theory. We also found that under mission-oriented funding, there was an increase in diversity in the sense of marginal utility. These findings should be of use in the “diversity-aware” design of programs for the funding of fundamental research.

High-technology targeting: its modes' strategies and paradigms

Although industry targeting generally seems to be on the wane, and technology targeting has taken its place in many industrialized countries, technology targeting has its own challenges. After a brief discussion of several classic problems inherent in targeting policy, this paper identifies three modes of technology targeting in three main theaters — military applications, civilian applications, and generic technology without specific applications — and considers the strategic issues pertaining to the role of government in these targeting modes. The preliminary conclusions are as follows. First, it appears that the strategy of encouraging technological spin-offs from mission-oriented programs has become less viable even in the United States. For most other countries, this strategy does not seem practical. Second, the national champion strategy should be used with great caution, because it is very difficult to formulate an appropriate portfolio of government measures that do not have conflicting and/or adverse effects. Third, developing generic technology through collaborative industrial R&D (among competitors) is advisable, despite the fact that there are few reliable and encouraging performance records to support the plausibility of this approach. As a theoretical synthesis, this paper proposes mission-oriented and diffusion-oriented technology policy paradigms and, based on the latter, suggests a framework for government-industry partnership. Finally, this paper considers the challenge of a stringent international intellectual property institution which favors inventors. In this new context, diffusion-oriented policy is not enough, and a complex legal dimension needs to be added.

A new look at the US pattern of federal R&D spending: preliminary lessons for newly industrializing economies

Recent literature has indicated the move of US industrial technology policy from ‘mission-oriented’ towards ‘diffusion-oriented’, following the trend initiated by Germany and Japan since the end of the Second World War. In terms of its expected effect on innovation, government intervention should result in more market-oriented and economically motivated technological change. While this same result is also desired by the governments of newly industrializing economies, the wisdom of following this trend in policy is put into question, particularly in those countries which have not yet succeeded in establishing their national innovation systems. Mission-oriented programs, particularly of the systems acquisition type, may he an essential ingredient to this effect, as suggested by the quantitative evidence presented in the case of the USA.

The potential of “spin-off” from a systems perspective

The pros and cons of “spin-off strategy” are diverse, as are the “spin- patterns” actually studied and identified. This paper looks at the systems design and integration aspects of military (and aerospace) mission-oriented programs. Many of these programs are technically conservative, with deadlines, and concentrate on exploiting the existing technology rather than carrying out radical scientific and technological advances. Therefore it is unlikely that they will result in major innovation, much less technological “spin-off” to civilian industry. However, the systems efforts and experience in these programs may be applied in a civilian arena with a strong systematic character. An example is the U.S. Navy's role in the early history of radio technology and industry. This case shows that, in a strictly technical sense, the Navy contributed little. Nevertheless, the Navy consolidated radio technology and industry at the national level for military purposes during World War I, and after the war played a key role in helping establish an “all-American” coordinated radio industry. The Navy's enormous and far-reaching “spin-off” contribution in effect resulted from its appreciation of the strategic importance of radio to national security and economy, and its national- level systems integration experience gained during wartime. Along with other programs in which systems efforts were the primary focus, this case provides a “new” pattern of systems “spin-off” which to date has been largely unexamined.

Selecting a group of dissimilar projects for funding

Federal Agencies carry on a variety of mission-oriented programs. A common type of procurement in such programs involves the issuance of a Request for Proposals and the selection of a number of projects for funding. The proposals may address the development of different components of a system or different components in an overall research program. Factors such as the relative importance of the different components in the overall effort, compatibility of the funded projects with each other, budgetary constraints, and programmatic issues add to the complexity of the problem. This article presents a methodology for evaluating and selecting a group of such dissimilar (or nonhomogeneous) proposals. The procedure has been successfully applied to the selection for funding of several groups of proposals addressing the development of solar energy systems, and in selecting bridge and road segments for improvement in Kansas. The presentation of this paper is based on one of these applications — selection of R&D proposals addressing the design and manufacture of the components of solar photovoltaic arrays.

The past is the key to the future

A new major frontier of geological research, which was initiated in the 1970's, involves predicting future geologic trends or events through study of the present and past, rather than trying to understand the past, often using what one knows about the present. Like most scientific frontiers, this one began from practical considerations—environmental concerns. The lack of formal recognition of this frontier results from fragmentation among many Federal agencies and highly focused mission-oriented programs ( e.g., earthquake prediction, CO 2, nuclear-energy safety, etc.). Most programs aim to predict only the next 50–100 years, but much longer periods of the past need to be studied to do this. Nuclear-waste disposal has sometimes been considered in terms of the next million years, a period of time permitting significant and broad geologic changes. Decreasing public interest in environmental concerns relegates many questions from the realm of applied research back to that of basic research. Most of these questions are so fascinating, however, that the frontier is still worth pursuing. Such questions include whether a phenomenon will or will not take place and the rates at which it can develop ( e.g., how fast do rifts form, how fast can a caldera event begin, and how quickly can a glacial maximum arrive?). Common elements of all studies include the historic record, trends in the Quaternary, analogues in various periods of the geologic time scale, and allowance for phenomena never experienced before. Other examples of studies include the Cretaceous as a period of a climatic extreme, an especially interesting time period; establishing the amount of paleocloudiness, a particularly challenging and important research area; acid rain as a possible new phenomenon. Geochemistry has much to contribute to this frontier science.

Managing the Scientific Super-Culture: The Task of Educational Preparation

HE UNFOLDING of history has thrust upon l this generation the test of ability to control the forces of science and technology that human ingenuity has liberated. To be sure, man's capacity for survival has always been tested by inimical forces in his environment. Through genetic selection and cultural adaptation man has shown capacity to cope with the hazards of nature. His ability to manage the power that he is now releasing has yet to be demonstrated. The challenge to this generation is a consequence of the unprecedented explosion of knowledge and of the means of its transmission. The nature of this knowledge is significant. It has liberated energies of magnitudes never before available to man. And it has made possible the almost instantaneous exchange of information with every part of the inhabited Earth and with outer-space beyond. Since 1945 spectacular events in science and technology, of which atomic fission, the electron microscope, the computer, television and the breakthrough into outer space are conspicuous, have pushed our society across a threshold. Beyond this threshold, knowledge assumes a new importance in society, and becomes liberated from restrictions that have impeded its growth in the past. The magnitude, interrelations and synergistic effects of the new order of science and technology have made it the dominating fact of our times. Knowledge was always power, but it was not always the central and controlling force in society. Today it is. Even if the process of innovation should suddenly stop, the momentum of ideas already born would carry on to the end of this century. It has taken less than the past quarter century to bring a scientific superculture into existence. The power and dynamism of this culture and its unsettling effects upon society promise danger in the absence of wise and effective control. There is ample evidence that we have not yet learned how to obtain this control and equal evidence that our risks will grow in direct ratio to delay in bringing the uses of the new knowledge under adequate public policy guidance. The implication that we do not now have effective public policy guidance for science and technology requires qualification. Individually, public officials and agencies accept responsibility for their acts and policies; but the summation of individual responsibility does not add up to general responsibility for the overall direction and emphasis of scientific and technological development. An elaborate structure of formal and informal science policy has been established, that in important respects does bring an increasing measure of considered judgment to public policy for science and technology. The strengths and weaknesses of our public science establishment have been assessed by competent observers and their published findings are widely known. American administration of science and technology is not irresponsible; nevertheless it may be argued that it is not sufficiently responsible. There are many dimensions to public responsibility and we are here concerned with its broader aspects. Our focus is not on the administration of mission-oriented programs, but rather upon social policy. Responsible management of the scientific super-culture is not necessarily achieved by efficiency and effectiveness at the mission level. Management in this context is good only if its ultimate effects are good; if its outcomes are favorable to the quality of life and to the capacity of the society for self-renewal. The locus of responsibility for this kind of policy guidance is obviously at the highest political levels. The expression of national policy is a function of the Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court. But the