Mission-oriented Research Research Articles

Mission-Oriented Research and Theory of Change: Driving Australia’s Transition to a Circular Economy

AbstractAustralia’s linear economic system hinders the collective pursuit of sustainability, equity, and well-being. As demands for housing, food, energy, transportation, and goods escalate, transitioning to a circular economy becomes imperative. Such a transition necessitates a transformation in business and governance models, as well as cultural shifts, to foster sustainable material flows. The proposed change will likely unfold in five phases: envisioning a circular economy future, evaluating options and trade-offs, initiating local actions, amplifying national efforts, and solidifying global agreements. This shift will occur within the context of significant technical, environmental, social, and economic megatrends, and each phase is likely to overlap with the next, with some phases occurring concomitantly and ongoing. It will reshape socio-technical systems and social practices that fulfil our essential needs. Moreover, this transformation process is inherently circular, characterised by continuous cycles of learning, adaptation, and risk management.

Effective mission-oriented research: A new framework for systemic research impact assessment

Abstract Mission-oriented research combines a wide array of natural and social science disciplines to offer solutions for complex and multi-dimensional challenges such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, and scarcity of natural resources. The utilization of the outputs of mission-oriented research aims for changes in behavior, policy and practice resulting in real world impacts. Systematically assessing such research impacts and impact-generating processes is novel and offers great potential to plan for impactful research. This article develops a framework for systemic research impact assessment (RIA) on the basis of a literature review taking natural resource management (NRM) research as an example. The review compiles and analyzes 70 relevant RIA approaches. The resulting framework combines four components for improving societal impacts (1) an integrated component enabling reflection of impacts on all sustainability dimensions, (2) a missions component orienting toward societal goals to ensure societal relevance, (3) an inclusive component enabling wide participation to ensure legitimacy of research and its impact, and (4) a strategic component to choose appropriate assessment scales and time dimensions to ensure effectiveness. We provide suitable examples for the framework and we conclude with a call for an increased use of systemic and formative RIA that incorporate participatory strategies for research priority setting as well as socially deliberated target systems (e.g. SDGs), to plan for impactful mission-oriented research.

Priorities in research portfolios: exploring the need for upstream research in cardiometabolic and mental health

Abstract A current issue in mission-oriented research policy is the balance of priorities in research portfolios. In parallel, in health policies, there is a debate on shifting research away from biomedical treatments towards health promotion and well-being. In this study, we examine if research agendas are responsive to these demands in cardiometabolic and mental health. First, we conducted bibliometric analyses which showed that most research remains focused on biomedical and clinical approaches. In contrast, focus groups and interviews suggested that more research is needed upstream, i.e. on broader determinants of health, public health, and health systems. Most experts also saw a need for more intervention-oriented research. Furthermore, comparisons between cardiometabolic and mental health suggested that they require similar upstream knowledge in issues such as health systems, nutrition, labour, or economic conditions. We discuss the reasons for the persistence of current priorities and the implications in the context of funding strategies.

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.

A patent-based analysis of the evolution of basic, mission-oriented, and applied research in European universities.

The dynamics of basic and applied research at university and industry have steadily changed since the Eighties, with the private sector reducing its investments in science and universities experiencing significant remodelling in the governance of their funding. While studies have focussed on documenting these changes in industry, less attention has been paid to observe the trajectories of basic and applied research in universities. This work contributes to fill this gap by looking at the evolution of publicly funded research that has been patented by universities between 1978 and 2015. First, we adopt a critical perspective of the basic versus applied dichotomy and identify patents according to three typologies of research: basic, mission-oriented, and applied research. Second, we describe the evolution of these three typologies in universities compared to industry. Our results show that over the years,patents from academic research that was publicly funded have become more oriented towards purebasic research, with mission-oriented basic researchand pureapplied research decreasing from thelate 1990s. These results complement and extend the literature on basic and applied research dynamics in the private sector. By introducing mission-oriented research as a type of basic research with consideration of use, the work problematises the basic and applied research dichotomy and provides insights into the evolution of academic research focus, offering a more complex picture of how university research contributes to industry and broader social value creation.

Realignment and change: CSIRO and industry 2000–10

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, CSIRO’s role broadened toward national mission-oriented research, less directly focused on supporting Australian industry. In terms of its legislated mandate, it deliberately placed increased emphasis on ‘contributing to the achievement of national objectives’ and less emphasis on ‘assisting Australian industry’. This change was accompanied by an organisational restructuring with the introduction of a national flagships' research program and a matrix management structure. We analyse this process of change and the reasons behind it and we investigate the effects of the new approach on CSIRO’s relationship with industry, and its technology transfer activities. While there was continuity in its commercial performance, the pattern of CSIRO’s client-directed research changed substantially, with a reduction in manufacturing-related research, and a notable growth in health- and environment-related research, in the main part for government agencies and departments. By the end of the decade the organisation had established a clear role for itself in the national innovation system, in which its relationship with Australian industry was no longer the dominant feature. It was a disruptive decade for CSIRO, but one in which the organisation demonstrated its capacity to adapt to a changing external environment.

The Content Evolution of Basic, Mission-Oriented, and Applied Research in European Universities

The dynamics of basic and applied research have steadily changed since the eighties, with the private sector reducing its investments in science and universities experiencing significant remodelling in the governance of their funding. Studies looking at this have mostly focussed on industry, and less attention has been paid to understanding the evolution of the contents of university research. We adopt a critical perspective of the basic versus applied research dichotomy, and using a patent-based analysis we first identify a variety of indicators to determine the pure basic, mission-oriented, and pure applied research content. Following this, we observe how university research content has evolved with respect to industrial research content from 1978 to 2015. Our results suggest that relevant shifts occurred in academic research. In particular, while pure basic and mission-oriented research contents remain mostly a matter of university knowledge production, their intensity progressively declined after the early 2000s. Conversely, the pure applied content of university research has been steadily declining since 1978. These results complement recent literature focussing on basic and applied research dynamics in the private sector, while opening up considerations on the role of university research and its value for society.

Mission-oriented Research Leads Frequently to a Product for Industry

Mission-oriented Research Leads Frequently to a Product for Industry

Targeted scientific research and transformation in the professional activity of the scientist

Modern science is increasingly focused on research that solves specific technological problems. In the world literature there are different, but generally similar, names for such studies. For example, German and Russian researchers use the term «problem-oriented research», the names «mission-oriented research», research as a response to «great challenges» and «frontier research», «science mode 2» are also used. In Ukraine, particularly in the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the name «targeted research programs» and «targeted scientific (scientific and technical) projects» are used. The article analyzes features of targeted research and the status of the obtained knowledge. It emphasizes their direct involvement in the social sphere — economic, political, social relations in general, because they are the basis of modern technology and their development is interested in the general public — producers and consumers of material goods. The knowledge obtained in these studies is knowledge «to order», which requires a solution to the relationship between basic and applied research, the principles of professional activity of scientists, «academic freedoms», changes in epistemological, socio-humanitarian principles of science as a social institution. In the professional activity of a scientist, the praxeologization of science requires an orientation on the humanity of the produced knowledge, which, in fact, is a combination of knowledge about nature with knowledge about human. In this case, the scientist must be an expert in related disciplines. The organizers of targeted research solve this situation through the collective implementation of research, or, as expressed by R. Florida, the use of «social intelligence». At the same time, the latter requires from the scientist, as a specialist, not only purely professional competencies but also individual psychological skills of work (creativity) in an interdisciplinary team (mutual assistance, tolerance, empathy, etc.) and interaction with the transdisciplinary community. Otherwise, the profession of a scientist becomes socially engaged in terms of competencies and activities, and the leader in the research team performs moderative rather than directive functions. Although targeted research programs are becoming widespread, leading in solving urgent practical problems, but in the scientific field, a balance must be maintained between research «to order» and research that will be the basis for future development of science and society.

Evaluating socially engaged climate research: Scientists’ visions of a climate resilient U.S. Southwest

Abstract Socially engaged science and collaborative research practices offer promising ways to address complex environmental and societal problems like climate variability and climate change. However, it is unclear if and how these types of collaborative knowledge production result in tangible impacts. Drawing from a 6-year evaluation, this article investigates the outcomes and contributions of ten collaborative research projects supported by a federally funded climate research program in the US Southwest. Based on a series of narratives that outline researchers’ objectives, anticipated outcomes are compared to those that emerged over a 6-year period. Results indicate several contributions that the program has made toward raising awareness about climate issues in the US Southwest, increasing capacity to adapt to climate change and climate variability, and building lasting individual and institutional collaborative relationships. However, researchers sometimes envision direct applications of their work, such as informing policy, planning, and decision-making, to be different than what occurred within the 6-year timeframe. Further exploration of these results reveals implicit assumptions in understanding how scientific information translates into use. This article offers insight into how researchers envision their impact, the management and development of a mission-oriented research program, and the use of evaluation to understand how collaborative research contributes to societal and environmental change.

Building Implementation Science in Nutrition

ABSTRACTThe field of nutrition has been investing in the development of many nutrition-specific and -sensitive policies and programs aimed at improving population-level malnutrition in all its forms. When there is a need to learn about a new system, programmatic context, or target population to understand how to effectively deploy an intervention to help improve nutrition, it is important to be able to ask a broad range of questions, both in topic and in scope. Our aim is to provide a simple and conceptually clear definition and principles to elaborate the science of implementation for nutrition to distinguish it from other ways of knowing and learning and to serve as a guide to the articulation of implementation science questions and methods. Implementation science is a body of systematized knowledge about how to improve implementation that 1) is distinguished by its aims to learn about the process of implementation, 2) uses methods that derive from and fit with the aims, and 3) is built with tacit (as well as expert) knowledge and experiential learning. Implementation science aims to generate the learning needed to improve implementation through facilitating collaboration among stakeholders to articulate and pursue the aims; capturing and using tacit knowledge and experiential learning from stakeholders, systems, providers, and recipients; and applying a mix of methods suited to the aims. This elaboration of the science provides a simple way to help those who already do, or want to do, implementation science understand and communicate how this science is unique and the value that it adds to the current landscape of nutrition priorities, innovations, and the attendant complex learning needs that follow. Implementation science encompasses both discovery- and mission-oriented research, and centers implementation as the object of study for the purposes of broad-based learning.

Open drug discovery of anti-virals critical for Canada’s pandemic strategy

In the event of the current COVID-19 pandemic and in preparation for future pandemics, open science can support mission-oriented research and development, as well as commercialization. Open science shares skills and resources across sectors; avoids duplication and provides the basis for rapid and effective validation due to full transparency. It is a strategy that can adjust quickly to reflect changing incentives and priorities, because it does not rely on any one actor or sector. While eschewing patents, it can ensure high-quality drugs, low pricing, and access through existing regulatory mechanisms. Open science practices and partnerships decrease transaction costs, increase diversity of actors, reduce overall costs, open new, higher-risk/higher-impact approaches to research, and provide entrepreneurs freedom to operate and freedom to innovate. We argue that it is time to re-open science, not only in its now restricted arena of fundamental research, but throughout clinical translation. Our model and attendant recommendations map onto a strategy to accelerate discovery of novel broad-spectrum anti-viral drugs and clinical trials of those drugs, from first-in-human safety-focused trials to late stage trials for efficacy. The goal is to ensure low-cost and rapid access, globally, and to ensure that Canadians do not pay a premium for drugs developed from Canadian science.

Funding Breakthrough Research: Promises and Challenges of the “ARPA Model”

From its 1958 origin in defense, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) model for research funding has, in the last two decades, spread to other parts of the US federal government with the goal of developing radically new technologies. In this paper, we propose that the key elements of the ARPA model for research funding are organizational flexibility on an administrative level and significant authority given to program directors to design programs, select projects, and actively manage projects. We identify the ARPA model’s domain as mission-oriented research on nascent S-curves within an inefficient innovation system. Finally, we describe some of the challenges to implementing the ARPA model, and we comment on the role of ARPA in the landscape of research-funding approaches.

Smart specialization strategies as a case of mission-oriented policy—a case study on the emergence of new policy practices

This article involves a conceptual evaluation of a large-scale innovation policy experiment—so-called smart specialization strategies (S3s)—that took place within the framework of the European regional cohesion programs between 2011 and the present. The goal is to provide a collection of reflections offering a wealth of lessons and information regarding the capacity of regional governmental agencies and other actors involved in the innovation system to implement a mission-oriented research and development support program and regarding the institutional and cultural conditions that can facilitate its practical application. In the first section, I briefly review the fundamentals of S3s. In the second section, I propose a framework for the identification of mission-oriented policies and I explain how S3 fits into this category. The following section shows how this policy represents a break with the policies that have long dominated the regional policy landscape. The fourth section describes the designing of this policy whose objective is to make strategic choices and decentralization of information and initiatives compatible. And finally, the last section reports on the emerging institutional forms that seem to facilitate the putting into practice of this design.

Simultaneous pursuit of discovery and invention in the US Department of Energy

There is a sharp boundary between basic and applied research in the organizational structure of the US Department of Energy (DOE). In this work, we consider a branch of DOE that was designed to operate across this boundary: the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E). We hypothesize that much of energy research cannot be neatly categorized as basic or applied and is more productive outside of the confines of the basic/applied dichotomy; ARPA-E gives us an opportunity to test that hypothesis. We construct a novel dataset of nearly 4000 extramural financial awards given by DOE in fiscal years 2010 through 2015, primarily to businesses and universities. We collect the early knowledge outputs of these awards from Web of Science and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Compared to similar awards from other parts of DOE, ARPA-E awards are significantly more likely to jointly produce both a publication and a patent. ARPA-E has been highly productive in creating new technology, while also contributing new scientific knowledge. This observation points to the productive overlap of science and technology in energy research and, more generally, for mission-oriented research funding organizations.

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.

Hooked on Soils: A Day in the Life of Ed Landa

Hooked on Soils: A Day in the Life of Ed Landa

The National Institute of Public Health: Shaping Public Policy to Advance Population Health in Mexico

The Mexican School of Public Health was founded in 1922 by the Mexican government and was the first school of public health in Latin America. It has become one of the largest public health institutions in the developing world and is the leading institution for teaching, research and service to improve public health in Mexico and Latin America. The Institute is an important player in shaping public policy in Mexico through its mission-oriented research. Through its research initiatives, the Institute has influenced policies regarding tobacco, obesity, milk and flour fortification, malaria, cancer, environmental health, and other public health priority areas. The Institute responds to changing health workforce training needs. It currently offers 28 competency-based graduate degree programs and trains annually more than 10,000 in-service public health workers through continuing education courses. The Institute offers multiple educational formats to accomplish its mission, including face-to-face, virtual, and blended learning. It has been accredited by both national and international agencies and collaborates closely with international institutions. The Institute contributes to global health by promoting health equity, strengthening health systems, and generating evidence-based strategies to improve population health in Mexico, the Americas, and around the world.

Quelles questions éthiques posent la production de palmier à huile et la recherche sur les biocarburants ?

At present, palm oil and biofuels arouse both hopes and fears. Palm oil, which is very important for the economy of several Asian and African countries and is used mostly by the food industry and oleochemisty, and very little as for biofuels, has positive and negative impacts on the use of land and the climate. Its production is often criticized from a social point of view and the quality of its oil is discussed from a nutritional point of view. A number of devices are set to encourage firms growing palm trees to have an ethical and deontological approach. Agricultural institutions (and researchers individually) are increasingly constrained by ethical issues related to biofuels. In France, the Joint Ethics Committee of Inra (Institut national de la recherche agronomique) and Cirad (Centre de cooperation internationale en recherche agronomique pour le developpement) has recently worked on this question. Biofuels appear as a revealing (in the chemical sense) of a crack in the ethos of those institutions. Cirad and Inra both carry out research. For years, researchers have worked to increase productivity and agricultural revenues, improve food security and market stabilization, reduce inequalities, etc. This was a moral bail to agricultural productivity. Environmental damages provoked by agriculture and development policies leading to a wide range of problems are undermining the ethos of the two institutions. Biofuels research, in large terms, is revealing difficulties as different issues are competing among themselves. The Committee recommended revising the meaning of mission-oriented research and made specific recommendations on how to deal with some ethical questions related to biofuels research.

Curiouser and curiouser: managing discovery making

On a recent official visit to southeast Asia, a prime minister asked me: What does it take to get a Nobel prize? I answered immediately: Invest in basic research and recruit the best minds. This curiosity-driven approach seems increasingly oldfashioned and underappreciated in our modern age of science. Some believe that more can be achieved through tightly managed research — as if we can predict the future. I believe this is an unfortunate misconception that affects and infects research funding. I hear repeatedly, particularly in developing countries: Applied research is what we need. There is nothing wrong with a nation having mission-oriented research and development to solve specific problems or to dedicate to an outreach programme, such as space exploration or alternative energy. During my visits as a US science envoy, I have emphasized that without solid investment in science education and a fundamental science base, nations will not acquire the ground-breaking knowledge required to make discoveries and innovations that will shape their future.