Solving Grand Challenges Research Articles

Transforming Relationships and Empowering Communities: The Role of Care Ethics in Solving Grand Challenges

Transforming Relationships and Empowering Communities: The Role of Care Ethics in Solving Grand Challenges

The construction of new scientific norms for solving Grand Challenges

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Natural resource dependence: understanding why companies (do not) disclose on biodiversity

Biodiversity is the foundation of all life on earth and plays a critical role in solving grand challenges like climate change. Yet, corporate disclosure on biodiversity remains scarce. We develop a theoretical model to explain why companies (fail to) disclose on biodiversity, by applying and extending natural resource dependence theory. Our model shows that companies may omit to disclose on biodiversity when they perceive an operational or regulatory risk associated with dependence on biodiversity. By contrast, when companies view biodiversity as material or a reputational threat, they are more likely to engage in disclosure. In addition, materiality positively moderates the relationship between biodiversity risk and disclosure. We discuss ways in which the topic of biodiversity, in spite of its complexity, can be brought to the forefront of manager’s minds in order to place greater emphasis on biodiversity in corporate sustainability management.

A comprehensive review of Bayesian statistics in natural hazards engineering

This study conducts a comprehensive review of the promises and challenges of implementing Bayesian statistics in natural hazards engineering. The reviewed natural hazards include earthquakes, floods, extreme wind events, wildfires, and landslides and debris flows. An attributes matrix is developed under each hazard to analyze each study based on its associated scale of analysis, topic area, Bayesian method, and data resource. In particular, the state-of-the-art survey elaborates the level of involvement for three categories of Bayesian methods, such as Bayesian model updating, Bayesian network, and Bayesian neural network, in the topic areas of hazard analysis, risk assessment, and structural health monitoring. In general, the existing research in natural hazards engineering is benefited by leveraging Bayesian statistics to handle uncertainties explicitly and deal with large-scale problems that involve different types of data inputs. However, the substantial computational cost and the determination of prior probability distributions are two major challenges bottlenecking the future development of Bayesian statistics. Compared with machine learning, Bayesian approaches offer more transparent model inference and exhibit different abilities to avoid data over fitting. This reviewed work can serve as a sound reference for interested practitioners and researchers to practice, develop, and promote broader and more in-depth Bayesian advances in solving grand challenges in natural hazards engineering.

The power of crowds: Grand challenges in the Asia-Pacific region

Technology is enabling organizations across the globe – large and small, for-profit and not-for-profit, governments and scientific groups – to harness the resources, knowledge, talent and creativity of crowds, in their effort to find innovative solutions to vexing problems. As contributors to solving grand challenges, crowds are providing data and funds, generating novel ideas and evaluating and developing concrete solutions. This article proposes a conceptual model for understanding the utility of crowdsourcing in the context of grand challenges. The article further identifies some boundary conditions where crowdsourcing may not be useful and discusses significant barriers to applying crowdsourcing in the Asia-Pacific region. We conclude by recognizing some empirical considerations and avenues for future research.JEL Classification: O31, O35

The construction of new scientific norms for solving Grand Challenges

There is an increasing recognition that there is a class of problems that society must solve urgently in the twenty-first century if humanity is to survive into the twenty-second century—the so-called ‘Grand Challenges’. Science policymakers have been active in recognising these challenges and the attendant need to develop new multidisciplinary ways of working. But embracing multidisciplinarity is not a straightforward choice for scientists, who individually are strongly steered by norms and values inculcated through their past scientific experiences. In this paper, therefore, we ask whether new funding approaches can contribute to creating new ways of working by scientists towards challenge-driven research, specifically by changing scientists’ expectations and beliefs. We address this research question with reference to a single new experimental method, the ‘research sandpit’, implemented experimentally in a single national science system, Norway. Our data are derived from interviews with scientists involved in the five research projects funded as a result of the first sandpit, called ‘Idélab’ (idea lab) and held in 2014, and with the Research Council of Norway. We conclude that the sandpit approach appeared to shift research perceptions of individual scientists, particularly around long-term belief structures. This implies that, when well managed, the sandpit model can indeed be useful to generate multidisciplinary research as part of a multifaceted approach to funding scientific research.

Plasma nanoscience: setting directions, tackling grand challenges

This review paper presents historical perspectives, recent advances and future directions in the multidisciplinary research field of plasma nanoscience. The current status and future challenges are presented using a three-dimensional framework. The first and the largest dimension covers the most important classes of nanoscale objects (nanostructures, nanofeatures and nanoassemblies/nanoarchitectures) and materials systems, namely carbon nanotubes, nanofibres, graphene, graphene nanoribbons, graphene nanoflakes, nanodiamond and related carbon-based nanostructures; metal, silicon and other inorganic nanoparticles and nanostructures; soft organic nanomaterials; nano-biomaterials; biological objects and nanoscale plasma etching. In the second dimension, we discuss the most common types of plasmas and plasma reactors used in nanoscale plasma synthesis and processing. These include low-temperature non-equilibrium plasmas at low and high pressures, thermal plasmas, high-pressure microplasmas, plasmas in liquids and plasma–liquid interactions, high-energy-density plasmas, and ionized physical vapour deposition as well as some other plasma-enhanced nanofabrication techniques. In the third dimension, we outline some of the ‘Grand Science Challenges’ and ‘Grand Socio-economic Challenges’ to which significant contributions from plasma nanoscience-related research can be expected in the near future. The urgent need for a stronger focus on practical, outcome-oriented research to tackle the grand challenges is emphasized and concisely formulated as from controlled complexity to practical simplicity in solving grand challenges.

Abstract: A Strategic Alliance in Industrial Research to Solve Grand Challenge Problems in Exploration and Production

Abstract: A Strategic Alliance in Industrial Research to Solve Grand Challenge Problems in Exploration and Production