Public Support For Research Research Articles

Science and innovation policy for New Zealand

The ‘Science of Science Policy’ is an interdisciplinary field of scholarly study that seeks to model, measure, and evaluate the interaction of public policies (including funding) and the performance of the science and innovation system. Such study offers insights and findings that can increase the effectiveness of science and innovation policy for New Zealand.
 New Zealand’s rate of public investment in research is only about two-thirds, and that of business investment in research about one-third of the OECD average. Our low business R&D intensity is not unexpected given our market size, firm size, and industrial composition. Nevertheless, public policy should aim to mitigate barriers to firms’ ability to undertake high-return research investments.
 As we undertake only 0.2% of the world’s research, most of the knowledge used in New Zealand is created elsewhere, so positioning ourselves to derive maximum benefit from others’ research is likely to have high payoff. The spillover phenomenon should be considered in making decisions about public research support. A re-balancing from competition towards cooperation, and encouraging linkages between research entities and organisations with a commercial orientation will increase the likelihood of spillover benefits.
 Research output could be increased relatively quickly by increasing the currently low expenditure per researcher, but any sustained increase will require more skilled scientists and engineers. Therefore public financing of research should include a monitored programme of training grants, and immigration policy settings that do not inhibit attracting skilled scientists and engineers. Attraction and retention of research ‘stars’ should be an explicit objective of New Zealand science policy.
 A culture of innovation requires an attitude that defines success in terms of the global market, not the local market. It requires a social, economic and cultural environment that rewards risktaking and does not see failure as a barrier to undertaking further investment. Policy makers, too, should be willing to take risks, and systematic

Exposure to climate change information predicts public support for solar geoengineering in Singapore and the United States

Solar geoengineering is a controversial climate policy measure that could lower global temperature by increasing the amount of light reflected by the Earth. As scientists and policymakers increasingly consider this idea, an understanding of the level and drivers of public support for its research and potential deployment will be key. This study focuses on the role of climate change information in public support for research and deployment of stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) in Singapore (n = 503) and the United States (n = 505). Findings were consistent with the idea that exposure to information underlies support for research and deployment. That finding was stronger in the United States, where climate change is a more contentious issue, than in Singapore. Cost concern was negatively related to support for funding and perceived risk was negatively related to support for deployment. Perceived government efficacy was a more positive predictor of support for funding in Singapore than in the United States. Additionally, relatively low support for local deployment was consistent with a NIMBY mindset. This was the first study to quantify the role of climate change information in SAI policy support, which has practical implications for using the media and interpersonal channels to communicate about SAI policy measures.

The impact of fiscal technology expenditures on innovation drive and carbon emissions in China

China's central government has identified the reduction of carbon emissions as an important strategic goal for achieving economic and social progress. Innovation is the main driver behind these goals, and fiscal technology expenditures are a crucial policy instrument that can influence such innovation. We use a panel of 277 Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2010 to 2019 and a fixed effects econometric model to assess the impact of fiscal technology expenditures on CO2 and study the transmission mechanism underlying this relationship. Our results suggest that public support of research and development initiatives can effectively curb regional carbon emission intensity. Moreover, this effect is particularly strong in areas characterized by relatively low economic growth rates and fiscal pressure. In addition, the analysis of the underlying transmission mechanism suggests that public spending on science and technology can promote emission reduction via investment in digital and green innovation. Hence, it is imperative to increase fiscal technology expenditures in order to help curb carbon emissions at the local level.

Financial payments from the pharmaceutical industry to U.S. cancer centers, 2014-2019.

1582 Background: Payments from the pharmaceutical industry to US health care providers were made public through Open Payments in 2013. Since then, industry payments to individual physicians have been studied extensively, but payments to hospitals remain uncharacterized. The goal of this study was to examine trends in industry payments to US cancer centers. Methods: We identified all US cancer centers that were National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) members or were National Cancer Institute (NCI) comprehensive cancer center as of 2019. Each institution was manually mapped to Open Payments, which contains industry payment data. Where applicable, subsidiary hospitals were included with the parent center. Among the NCCN centers, we used National Plan and Provider Enumeration System data to identify medical oncologists practicing there. Oncologists were linked to Open Payments by name and address. We analyzed “research payments” (RP), which include payments related to preclinical and clinical research, and “general payments” (GP), which include non-research-related payments in categories such as speaker fees, consulting fees, meals, grants, charitable contributions, and licensing fees. We ascertained public research support from NIH data, and included all research project grants. We used correlation analysis and linear regression models to assess the association between industry payments to a cancer center and to oncologists practicing at that center. All dollar values were inflation-adjusted to 2019 dollars using the Consumer Price Index for medical care from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Results: Overall industry RP to US cancer centers increased from $527 million in 2014 to $653 million in 2019, while GP increased from $346 million to $786 million. NCI research funding increased from $1,397 million in 2014 to $1,583 million in 2019 (13.3% increase) while overall industry payments (RP+GP) increased from $873 million to $1,439 million (64.8% increase). Industry payments were highest as a portion of total income (industry + NCI) at MD Anderson (64.2%) and lowest at St. Jude (0.1%). Among NCCN institutions, industry payments to cancer centers and the oncologists practicing at those centers were correlated (coefficient = 0.382). A $1,000 increase in GP to a cancer center from a given pharmaceutical company was associated with a $1.00 ($0.61 - $1.30) increase in GP from that company to oncologists at that cancer center. Conclusions: From 2014-2019, cancer center funding from industry sources grew quickly, driven by an increase in non-research payments, and now approaches the amount of public research funding cancer centers receive. Cancer center acceptance of industry payments is associated with increased industry payments to its employed physicians, which are known to sway prescribing practices. These trends raise concerns regarding the ability of these institutions to fulfill their public missions.

Public support for research in artificial intelligence: a descriptive study of U.S. Department of Defense SBIR Projects

Public support for research in artificial intelligence: a descriptive study of U.S. Department of Defense SBIR Projects

How Negative Frames Can Undermine Public Support for Studying Solar Geoengineering in the U.S

Scientists and policymakers have become interested in the viability of solar geoengineering as a way to manipulate the Earth’s temperature in the face of unabated global warming. This paper reports the results from a survey experiment designed to test predictions about the effects of exposure to framed messages about basic scientific research on solar geoengineering. Our findings reinforce other survey research showing that solar geoengineering is a generally unfamiliar concept, but also show that this topic has not yet become politicized. In addition, despite treatments of equal valence, we find that negative information can exert a more powerful influence than positive information on support for establishing a research program to study solar geoengineering. The results have implications for understanding how framing can influence public support for research on new technologies to mitigate climate change.

Community and citizen science: Inviting the public into UC ANR research

Community and citizen science fosters an appreciation for the scientific process, building scientific literacy and public support for research.

Relationship between public support for research and development, and companies' business performance

Relationship between public support for research and development, and companies' business performance

Relationship between public support for research and development, and companies' business performance

This paper focuses on a company's business performance by considering its research and development activities, participation in publicly-funded research projects and collaboration with various rese...

The Intersection of “Natural” Edutainment and Perceptions of Natural Resource Uses

ABSTRACTThis analysis investigated relationships between experiences with edutainment elements of Walt Disney World and SeaWorld parks in Orlando, FL and perceptions of natural resource uses. While prior studies have focused on museums, zoos, and other attractions, little attention has been paid to locations recognized as primarily entertainment. A sample of 833 U.S. residents were asked about their perceptions of natural resources. Those having visited either SeaWorld Orlando or Walt Disney World had higher levels of agreement than non-visitors that marine and wild mammals can be ethically kept. However, visitors had lower levels of agreement that livestock animals could be ethically raised for meat, sparking questions about self-selection biases and/or associations with visiting/viewing versus consuming animals. Uncertainty about future availability of public support for research, education, and engagement on natural resource use and conservation provide continued incentives for furthering entertaining educational venues to engage the public.

The impact of R&D subsidies under different institutional frameworks

This paper assesses the impact of public R&D subsidies on business R&D investment in heterogeneous institutional frameworks. Public support for research and innovation activities may leverage private resources when firms are constrained by lower quality public institutions, reducing uncertainty and favouring private risky investments. We develop an institutional index based on existing indicators and group regional economies on the basis of the quality of their public institutions. We use a comprehensive sample of Spanish firms observed over more than 20 years and a larger dataset of 13 European economies drawn from the Community Innovation Survey 2014 to test the policy impact in terms of private R&D expenditure for companies operating in different institutional frameworks. Our findings reject full crowding-out and show that beneficiary firms invest more in R&D than non-beneficiaries in all regions, including those with lower institutional quality. Our results support the case of policies that promote research and innovation activities in weaker institutional contexts.

How Public R&D Support Affects Research Activity of Enterprises: Evidence from the Czech Republic

Public support for research and development (R&D) in business sector is usually justified by the argument about market failure. New knowledge produced by research and development has some features of public good, which causes underinvestment in private R&D activities. From the social development point of view, it is desirable to produce and diffuse new knowledge. The article seeks to answer the question what impact a change in the amount of public support for R&D has on research activities of private enterprises. This paper tries to bridge a gap in the literature dealing with impact of R&D policy in emerging innovation systems in Central Europe. Our research is carried out on the example of the Czech Republic and its regions. We evaluate direct and indirect R&D support in the period 2007–2015, and we pay attention to three variables representing R&D in businesses: business expenditures on R&D, number of R&D employees in businesses and number of R&D workplaces in businesses. We calculate year-on-year changes in all the observed variables, and the relation between the public support and research activities of enterprises is assessed through descriptive statistics, measures of association and regression models. Our analyses proved a positive impact of R&D support on companies’ own expenditures on R&D and the number of employees. The relation between R&D support and number of workplaces seems to be quite weak. The paper also discusses limitations of the research and implications for public policy.

The 3Rs in research: a contemporary approach to replacement, reduction and refinement.

First promulgated in 1959, the 3Rs of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement have evolved as fundamental principles underlying the use of animals and alternatives in science throughout the modern world. This review describes a contemporary approach to delivering the 3Rs through acknowledging the contribution of new technologies and emphasising that applying the 3Rs can be beneficial to good science as well as to animal welfare. This science-led approach moves the concept of the 3Rs out of an ethical silo where they were often considered by scientists to be an inconvenient obligation. On the contrary, relevant examples demonstrate the opportunity to practise better science using 3Rs technologies which deliver faster, more reproducible and more cost-effective results. Indeed, methods harnessing Replacement approaches may permit discoveries which are simply not feasible using animals and frequently are more flexible and agile since compliance with regulatory oversight requirements is simplified. Although the necessity for rigorous oversight is well recognised, it is important that the associated bureaucracy is not allowed to become prohibitive, causing scientists to avoid pursuing justifiable and important research involving animals. Public support for research is conditional - animals should not suffer unnecessarily and sufficient potential benefit should accrue from the research. However, society also actively seeks pioneering medical and scientific advances which can only be achieved through research. Therefore, a balance must be struck between safeguarding animal welfare whilst enabling high-quality science. It is this balance which promotes and sustains public confidence that animal based research is acceptable and being appropriately managed.

The Motor Function Specialty

he American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation defines the PM&R specialty as “the branch of medicine emphasizing the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disorders—particularly related to the nerves, muscles, bones and brain—that may produce temporary or permanent impairment” [1]. These disorders range from spina bifida and muscular dystrophy to sports injuries and musculoskeletal pain to Parkinson disease. Physiatrists—specialists in PM&R—also care for people with spinal cord injuries and fit prosthetics for those who have had limb amputations. The ultimate goal is to improve movement as much as possible and reduce the psychological, emotional, familial, and vocational stresses that come with temporary or permanent loss of motor function. The field is notable for providing long-term care and for collaborating closely with orthopedic surgeons, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and other health care professionals. Although society was, for a long time, not particularly accommodating to people with physical impairment, and words like “cripple” or “gimp” were said aloud, great strides have been made in the last three or four decades. Arguably, individuals with disabilities like physicist Stephen Hawking (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), actor Christopher Reeve (quadriplegia), actor Michael J. Fox (Parkinson disease), and boxer Muhammad Ali (Parkinsonism) have shown that a physical disorder or impairment is not the end to a productive and valuable life. Today, public support for research into physical disorders is more robust than ever.... Language: en

Citizen science helps predict risk of emerging infectious disease

Engaging citizen scientists is becoming an increasingly popular technique for collecting large amounts of ecological data while also creating an avenue for outreach and public support for research. Here we describe a unique study, in which citizen scientists played a key role in the spatial prediction of an emerging infectious disease. The yearly citizen‐science program called “Sudden Oak Death (SOD) Blitz” engages and educates volunteers in detecting the causal pathogen during peak windows of seasonal disease expression. We used these data – many of which were collected from under‐sampled urban ecosystems – to develop predictive maps of disease risk and to inform stakeholders on where they should prioritize management efforts. We found that continuing the SOD Blitz program over 6 consecutive years improved our understanding of disease dynamics and increased the accuracy of our predictive models. We also found that self‐identified non‐professionals were just as capable of detecting the disease as were professionals. Our results indicate that using long‐term citizen‐science data to predict the risk of emerging infectious plant diseases in urban ecosystems holds substantial promise.

Government policy failure in public support for research and development

Promoting Research and Development (R&D) and innovative activity is a key element of the EU Lisbon Agenda and is seen as playing a central part in stimulating economic development. In this paper we argue that, even allowing for benevolent policy-makers, informational asymmetries can lead to a misallocation of public support for R&D, hence government policy failure, with the potential to exacerbate preexisting market failures. Initially, we explore alternative allocation mechanisms for public support, which can help to minimize the scale of these government policy failures. Of these mechanisms (grants, tax credits, or allocation rules based on past performance), our results suggest that none is universally most efficient. Rather, the effectiveness of each allocation rule depends on the severity of financial constraints and on the level of innovative capabilities of the firms themselves.

The Contribution of Research and Innovation to Productivity and Economic Growth

This paper examines the impact of investment in research and innovation on Australian market sector productivity. While previous studies have largely focused on a narrow class of private sector intangible assets as a source of productivity gains, this paper shows that there is a broad range of other business sector intangible assets that can significantly affect productivity. Moreover, the paper pays special attention to the role played by public support for research and innovation in the economy. The empirical results suggest that there are significant spillovers to productivity from public sector R&D spending on research agencies and higher education. No evidence is found for productivity spillovers from indirect public support for the business enterprise sector, civil sector or defence R&D. These findings could have implications for government innovation policy as they provide insights into possible productivity gains from government funding reallocations.

The role of sources of finance on the development of wind technology

This paper contributes to the debate on the competitiveness and maturity of wind technology by carrying out an analysis on research investments and sales of a panel of 10 wind manufacturers over the period 2002–2011, examining the extent to which public and private funding affect the competitiveness of these wind corporations. A group of major manufacturers of wind turbines with production in 2006 totaling more than 70% of the global supplied capacities is considered a representative cluster of green innovative industry for this study. Public support for research, development and demonstration (RD&D), incentives for the production of wind energy and access to credit are the three main sources of finance addressed herein. Corporate debt is the primary factor supporting both wind technology research investment and sales of wind turbines, whereas other sources of finance play a limited role. The reduction in that source of finance has important repercussions for the development of wind energy. The econometric analysis suggests that regulatory risks play a key role for the development of wind technology, even stronger than the financial risk. Thee former originate in unexpected decisions to stop subsidies (e.g. deployment ones), whereas the latter arise from restrictive access to credit.

The animal research war

The animal research war

The face of cancer: public perception versus cancer statistics

17503 Background: More than 60 percent of cancer diagnoses occur among people over age 65. Initiatives to address management of older adults with cancer are ongoing. In order to continue the efforts, public support for research in cancer and aging will be important. However, does the public perception of cancer and aging match what is reported in cancer statistics? Methods: A convenience sample was drawn to complete a 17-question pilot survey over a 1 month period. Demographics data were collected. The survey queried participants about their knowledge on the statistics associated with cancer and aging, participation of seniors in clinical trials, and other topics relating to cancer and aging. Results: One-hundred subjects who met study eligibility completed the survey. Demographics are as follows: 44 male, 56 female; 87% Caucasian; median age 45 (range, 19–91). Only 28% identified correctly 61–70 years as the median age at cancer diagnosis for many cancers. Only 11% answered correctly that 60% of cancer diagnoses occur among people over age 65. 72% subjects correctly answered that <10% of seniors participated in research studies. Only 18% felt doctors have enough information on the use of anti-cancer drugs in seniors with cancer, but 36% thought the government mandates testing of drugs in older adults before a drug can be used in this population. A high percentage (52%) surveyed also stated they felt drug companies do not try hard enough to find the best way to use their products in seniors, mainly due to insufficient financial incentives. Conclusions: Although 83% surveyed stated they knew someone age 65 or older with cancer, majority (66%) perceived the “face of cancer” to be more than a full decade younger compared with the actual cancer statistics. A future random sampling to verify our results is planned. The aging population highlights the continued need to address issues that may be unique to the older cancer adults. A public campaign to better educate the general public about cancer and aging may help to increase awareness and research for this long time under-served population. Author Disclosure Employment or Leadership Consultant or Advisory Role Stock Ownership Honoraria Research Expert Testimony Other Remuneration Geriatric Oncology Consortium Geriatric Oncology Consortium