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Public-private partnerships have long existed in literature, primarily in the construction sector. However, there is a paucity of research on the research and innovation ecosystem. This research aims to develop a framework for promoting public-private partnerships in research and innovation to foster public-private linkages. Primary data was collected from 192 participants selected from public and private sector organizations. The relative importance index was used to rank key elements for promoting public-private partnerships in research and innovations. The best practices include sharing knowledge, engaging in win-win partnerships, and establishing innovation hubs and intellectual property policies. Effective elements include leveraging innovation in geographical proximity, a supportive regulatory framework, joint financing of research equipment and tax incentives for research equipment. Priority sectors include renewable energy, smart agriculture and education. Websites and direct engagements are essential platforms for engaging in collaborations. The research recommends that the government should provide seed funding to support the early phases of the research and extend tax exemptions for research equipment and infrastructure. Research institutions should establish innovation hubs and operationalize intellectual property policies. The study proposes a framework for promoting public-private partnerships in research and innovation in a developing country like Zambia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe's transportation infrastructure including bridges requires optimised maintenance plans and adequate monitoring throughout its life cycle to ensure safety and serviceability. The deployment of new technologies can help this goal, providing numerous advantages compared to existing and established inspection and monitoring methods. This deployment can be facilitated by adequate policies and focused research and innovation, taking also into account the European ambitions for safe, secure, and future-proof transportation infrastructure. Considering the above, the objective of this study is threefold. First, it provides an overview of recent policy initiatives in Europe that facilitate the adoption of new and emerging technologies in bridge inspection and monitoring, as well as maintenance in general. Second, it identifies and reviews R&I projects relevant to bridges, including the budgetary expenditure, from the Horizon 2020 European Research Framework Programme which was recently concluded. Finally, it systematically reviews technologies and solutions developed by the identified projects, assessing also their technology readiness. What emerges is substantial research, which includes solutions and technologies (e.g., use of air or ground drones, artificial intelligence, digital twins) that have the potential to reshape the bridge inspection and monitoring state of play in Europe and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) are becoming key assets for competitiveness and addressing developmental challenges. It thus becomes imperative for a country to strategically protect its IPRs and create roadmaps for the development of this institution. The Indian government in recent years has taken a salutary paradigm shift by bringing innovation and entrepreneurship at the center stage of its economic development and addressing developmental challenges. The National Intellectual Property Rights Policythat came out in 2016 (NIPR 2016) can be seen as part of this innovationdriven inclusive growth approach. India becoming one of the most aggressive globally in creating new start-ups is among some of the visible outcomes of the policy shift. The IPR policy becomes more important in this new context. The paper revisits the NIPR 2016 to see to what extent it is an enabler forresearch, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the country. The pathways that it underscores for strengthening the IPR institution in the country, positions undertaken on contentious issues, and the long-term vision that it draws are examined. What types of further interventions/pathways may be required that can enrich the IPR ecosystem and create positive externality in the economy and society are discussed. The study proposes the need for framing a new IPR policy in the context of the fast-changinginnovation dynamics and the increasing role of IPR in this evolving landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public-private partnerships have been widely applied in financing infrastructure development with mixed results. Research calls to extend public-private partnerships to research and innovation to foster strategic linkages between research and industry have been increasing. This study seeks to investigate key elements for promoting public-private partnerships in research and innovation using evidence from research institutions. The research study followed an explorative design, and 19 purposefully selected respondents from research and development institutions and universities were interviewed. The findings reveal different forms of research collaboration through memoranda of understanding. The best practices for promoting public-private partnerships in research and innovation are enhancing the attractiveness of the partnering institutions and establishing innovation hubs and intellectual property policies. The elements for effectively implementing public-private partnerships in research and innovation include a supportive regulatory framework, joint financing of research equipment and tax incentives for research equipment. Priority sectors for promoting public-private partnerships in research and innovation include energy, agriculture, waste management, engineering and technology and environmental sustainability. This study is one of the first to investigate the key elements for promoting public-private partnerships in research and innovation as a mechanism for funding high-impact research in the context of a developing country. Furthermore, the key elements can guide countries wishing to develop frameworks for promoting public-private partnerships in research and innovation.

In the past years, human computer interaction (HCI) research and innovation have developed substantially, leading to a number of fruitful research topics. In this paper, we surveyed the HCI research and innovation in China from a 10-year perspective. We analyzed the popular research methodology and topics among Chinese researchers, including human modeling, user interface techniques, context awareness, user acceptance and performance, user experience design, human-AI interaction, HCI applications and social influences. We also conducted a bibliography analysis on the published papers in top-tier conferences and journals, which revealed a significant rising trend, and a generally broad distribution of research types. Moreover, we described typical applications and the industry influence of the research outcomes. We concluded with implications and reflections for HCI researchers across the world and shared the future research trends envisioned by Chinese researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article highlights the critical importance of research and innovation in higher education, using South Africa (SA) as a case study. It analyses discourses that enable and constrain research and innovation. Margaret Archer's social realist theory and stratified construct of structure, culture and agency is employed to understand various emerging transformation discourses exerting enabling or constraining causal powers for research and innovation. The interplay between structural, cultural, and agential milieus is investigated to better understand the urgency towards research and innovation. With this understanding, academics might locate their agency in the global and local contexts, create ideal conditions and build corporate agency for strengthening research and innovation. Universities with limited resources, should not reinvent what already exists, but should responsibly borrow key aspects that would thrive in their own contexts. However, it must be cautioned that no system of the world can exist as an end without deficits and flaws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Special Issue includes four articles addressing 'Creative China' from top-down to bottom-up approaches, with two conversational pieces offering insights from the UK–China Creative Industries Research and Innovation Hub fellowship study. It provides different perspectives of interpreting 'Creative China' and shares multiple views on collaborations in the 'creative industries' between the United Kingdom and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In November 2022, the European Commission presented its Drone Strategy 2.0 with two main objectives: to build the European Union's (EU's) drone service market and to strengthen the Union's civil, security and defence industry capabilities and synergies. From the Commission's perspective, accelerating the integration of drones in Europe's airspace has the potential to enable progress on numerous policy objectives, such as the green transition, urban mobility, industrial renewal and cutting‐edge R&D in the civil–military domain. In this commentary, though, we argue that the Strategy is indicative of wider contemporary trends in EU policy‐making regarding cross‐cutting policy agendas, industry‐centred R&D ambitions and the identification and promotion of infrastructural goals enabling further civil–military co‐operation. These tendencies capture the growing importance of dual‐use technologies, both in society at large and in the security and military domains. This is particularly relevant in the current European context of growing military expenditure with the war in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a rich body of research done in online teaching and learning in the context of developing countries. However, there is a gap in research on challenges in the implementation of online learning in institutions of higher learning. Lecturers and students' readiness for this shift from classroom-based to online learning is pivotal. The implementation of online learning strategies demands lecturers’ skills on integrating technology with content. This study examines the perceptions of lecturers as they transit from face-to-face to online learning in an institution of higher learning in one developing country. The study is framed theoretically by Suzuki and Keller's Five-E Model for selecting the right model and techniques for appropriate purposes in online design. It used a qualitative research methodology and employed a convenient sampling technique to select three lecturers from each of the three institutions of interest. An open-ended questionnaire was used to collect data and follow up interviews were made. The study used a thematic approach to analyse data. The findings reveal that the lecturers embrace online learning mostly because they are aware that students enjoy learning technology and thus enhance understanding. The challenge raised is the shortage of gadgets which are needed by lecturers to support blended learning. Also, some of the students do not have access to the internet due to socio-economic challenges.

Universities of technology in South Africa have transitioned from being vocational and professional education-based institutions to fully fledged universities in the last sixteen years. Despite this systemic change, it remains unclear whether researchers and academics at one university of technology have sufficiently transformed their research ethos and repertoires to effectively cope with the research and technology innovation demands of a research-oriented university. The researchers wondered about the extent to which this university's academics and researchers, who traditionally have been accustomed to training graduates for work placement, have fully embraced a culture of research and innovation. Drawing on inputs from eight academics who exhibited resistance to research productivity, by overemphasizing teaching while downplaying their research responsibilities, this article explores the motivations for such counterproductive behavior, to make inferences about existing barriers to research productivity at the university. Weak connectivity, unsophisticated laboratory software, limited subscriptions to leading databases, heavy teaching loads, and bureaucratic constraints and retirement policies were found to be among the technological, organizational, and environmental constraints that undermined research participation and generated resistance to research and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While decarbonization and hydrogen energy are at the top of European policymakers' agenda, research and innovation (R&I) management of energy companies must focus on clean technologies (cleantech) which could decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the sector. The Central European energy sector, however, might face a decarbonization challenge because of the specific geopolitical situation, so aligning R&I directions with regional policy and conditions seem to be crucial to accelerate sectoral and corporate adaptation. This study focuses on the decarbonization progress and strategies of the Visegrád 4 (V4) countries, concerning some of the most promising hydrogen-driven cleantech R&I directions which might induce strategic changes in Central European energy companies. Besides promoting renewable energy sources, results show that V4 strategies usually include the development of nuclear energy capacities to reduce GHG emissions and using the extended natural gas infrastructure for renewable energy storage. The analysed cleantech innovations are included but usually not central in these strategies. Strategic changes in energy companies, however, could be driven by these promising R&I directions, e.g., the hydrogen economy development by power-to-X (P2X) technologies, industrial decarbonization by carbon capture, utilization or storage (CCUS) technologies in the mid-term, and cross-sectoral integration and optimization by smart energy system (SES) development in the long-term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's urbanization has taken a unique course with carefully planned economic growth, since last four decades. Economic development zones are exclusive spaces, representing the intimate connection between political authority and urbanization. The imbalanced spatial development of China's economy leads to transfer of industries among different regions of Anhui province. This inter-regional transferring of industries is not only reflecting the dynamic changes of factor endowments among the regions but also an important way to promote the development of under-developed regions. The Wanjiang Demonstration Area (WDA) was selected to undertake industrial transfer, and it results in industrial transfer rely on synergistic effect of technology and local talent. This study analyzed the synergistic effect of technology and local talent of WDA industry transfer by using entropy value method and coupling coordination degree model based on discussing the talent factors that influence the technical level. The result indicates that talent level index (66,190.23, Uj) is much higher than technology level index (1793.65, Ui); coordination degrees of technology and talent in WDA with the values ranging from 0.09 to 2.16 were found and also manifesting low coupling coordination and system imbalance. As per the coupling method, synergistic effects of technology and talent of industry transfer in WDA are basically in a low coupling stage, and the coupling degree ranges were from 0.10 to 0.19. There were regional variations in the metrics that measure talent and technology including (composite index, coupling degree and coordination degree). All indices in the Hefei city are much greater than those in other nearby areas; with the exception of the coupling degree, in resulting regional barriers should be avoided and unrestricted exchanges of talent and technology should be encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The purpose of this article is to explore the contemporary role of international higher education, research and innovation (IHERI) in international relations (IR). Using an interdisciplinary and conceptual approach, it examines how diplomacy and higher education scholars understand and label the rationales, strategies and contributions of IHERI to IR. The findings indicate that multiple terms are used, resulting in terminology chaos and confusion. The concept of knowledge diplomacy is proposed, defined and analysed as a comprehensive term to frame the role of IHERI in IR. The similarities and differences between knowledge diplomacy and related terms such as cultural, public, science and education diplomacy and soft power are examined. Issues that require further investigation are identified, with special attention given to the differences between using a knowledge diplomacy approach versus a soft power approach to understand the role of IHERI in IR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the notion of capability development through the lens of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). It describes how RRI capabilities can be promoted and developed through capacity-building activities by drawing on a reflection of the experiences of some members of the Ethics and Society team of the EU-funded Human Brain Project (HBP) who have contributed to the development of an extensive RRI capacity building programme for HBP researchers, EBRAINS research infrastructure developers and users, as well as interested external audiences. It also highlights some of the outcomes of the RRI capacity-building exercise and the challenge of assessing the impact of such activities.

Carsharing is often included in packages of measures to encourage a more sustainable mobility. In this paper we determine the key trends and challenges in European carsharing research and innovation. We assess the status and future potential of European carsharing and identify additional research needs. The results show a steady increase in European funding to support urban carsharing projects. This is true for projects studying Information Technology development (i.e. Apps, websites, connected cars, etc). City authorities should conduct an ex-ante analysis before implementing carsharing schemes to ensure it is coordinated with public transport. Monitoring is crucial since carsharing services should contribute to reducing the overall environmental impact of the transport system. City authorities and private providers should collaborate to provide sustainable carsharing schemes that facilitate multimodal travel, lower greenhouse gas emissions, improve urban air quality and provides accessible mobility for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-creation seems to be flourishing across innovation policy discourses: The concept suggests that engaging diverse actors throughout innovation processes will unlock new sources of innovation and conduce robust outcomes. While co-creation seems to embrace new and diverse participation opportunities, it is necessary to interrogate how it affects existing notions of public engagement. In this paper, we explore the discursive uptake of co-creation in European innovation policy. Drawing on a qualitative discourse analysis of European Union (EU) publications, we scrutinize the value propositions of co-creation and discuss them in light of the existing public engagement literature. We find that the EU tends to foreground alleged economic benefits of co-creation over questions of social justice. To that effect, it consistently conflates citizens, consumers, and users and blurs the line between self-motivated opportunity and democratic legitimacy. Countering the prevalent co-creation optimism, we propose a more nuanced outlook on co-creation that should prompt further scholarly inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though much attention is dedicated to the development of its research and innovation policy, the European Union constantly struggles to match the level of the strongest innovators in the world. Therefore, there is a necessity to analyze the individual efforts and conditions of the 27 member states that might determine their final innovative performance. The results of a scientific literature review showed that there is a growing interest in the usage of artificial intelligence when seeking to improve decision-making processes. Data envelopment analysis, as a branch of computational intelligence methods, has proved to be a reliable tool for innovation efficiency evaluation. Therefore, this paper aimed to apply DEA for the assessment of the European Union's innovation efficiency from 2000 to 2020, when innovation was measured by patent, trademark, and design applications. The findings showed that the general EU innovation efficiency situation has improved over time, meaning that each programming period was more successful than the previous one. On the other hand, visible disparities were found across the member states, showing that Luxembourg is an absolute innovation efficiency leader, while Greece and Portugal achieved the lowest average efficiency scores. Both the application of the DEA method and the gathered results may act as viable guidelines on how to improve R&I policies and select future investment directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new European Research Area (ERA) policy paper with the Horizon Europe programme will change the continent’s Research and Innovation (R&I) ecosystems. With the support of several member states, decision-makers in European Institutions see Open Science as a key to a globally competitive European R&I system. Its success, however, also requires dedication from the national and local levels and a change in how researchers work. Interdisciplinary, collaborative approaches are becoming crucial in the new era of European research, while enhanced support and emphasis on connecting R&I leading and lagging countries can release new synergies. This article briefly introduces new tools and opportunities to help policymakers and young researchers increase their positive impact.

Resource allocation is essential to selection and implementation of innovative projects in science and technology. Current “winner-take-all” models for grant applications require significant researcher time in writing extensive project proposals, and rely on the availability of a few time-saturated volunteer experts. Such processes usually carry over several months, resulting in high effective costs compared to expected benefits. We devised an agile “community review” system to allocate micro-grants for the fast prototyping of innovative solutions. Here we describe and evaluate the implementation of this community review across 147 projects from the “Just One Giant Lab’s OpenCOVID19 initiative” and “Helpful Engineering” open research communities. The community review process uses granular review forms and requires the participation of grant applicants in the review process. Within a year, we organised 7 rounds of review, resulting in 614 reviews from 201 reviewers, and the attribution of 48 micro-grants of up to 4,000 euros. The system is fast, with a median process duration of 10 days, scalable, with a median of 4 reviewers per project independent of the total number of projects, and fair, with project rankings highly preserved after the synthetic removal of reviewers. Regarding potential bias introduced by involving applicants in the process, we find that review scores from both applicants and non-applicants have a similar correlation of r=0.28 with other reviews within a project, matching traditional approaches. Finally, we find that the ability of projects to apply to several rounds allows to foster the further implementation of successful early prototypes, as well as provide a pathway to constructively improve an initially failing proposal in an agile manner. Overall, this study quantitatively highlights the benefits of a frugal, community review system acting as a due diligence for rapid and agile resource allocation in open research and innovation programs, with implications for decentralised communities.

It is important to establish a culture of research in the graduate schoolof state universities to stay relevant and competitive in the knowledge-based economy. This paper attempted to enhance the graduate school research support for the improvement of the scholarly performance of graduate students in a state university. The mixed-methods sequential explanatory design was used. An online survey was conducted using aresearcher-made questionnaire developed through Google form and was participated by 106 respondents. Likewise, interviews were participated by 11 interviewees.Furthermore, some of the findings were triangulated using document analysis. Average and rank were used to analyze the survey data. Findings reveal that the scholarly performance of the graduate students “does not meet expectations at all”. However, the extent of institutional support of the graduate school “fully meets expectation”. The scholarly performances needing improvement were research presentation and publication which were attributed to the need to attune the informational, mentoring, administrative, and resource supports of the institution along with the national standards for graduate research. Hence, opportunities for improvements were identified on the enhancement of the graduate school research support which may help establish research and innovation culture that is comparable to the national and global standards

Resource allocation is essential to the selection and implementation of innovative projects in science and technology. With large stakes involved in concentrating large fundings over a few promising projects, current “winner-take-all” models for grant applications are time-intensive endeavours that mobilise significant researcher time in writing extensive project proposals, and rely on the availability of a few time-saturated volunteer experts. Such processes usually carry over several months, resulting in high effective costs compared to expected benefits. Faced with the need for a rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, we devised an agile “community review” system, similar to distributed peer review (DPR) systems, to allocate micro-grants for the fast prototyping of innovative solutions. Here we describe and evaluate the implementation of this community review across 147 projects from the “Just One Giant Lab’s OpenCOVID19 initiative” and “Helpful Engineering” open research communities. The community review process uses granular review forms and requires the participation of grant applicants in the review process. We show that this system is fast, with a median duration of 10 days, scalable, with a median of 4 reviewers per project independent of the total number of projects, and fair, with project rankings highly preserved after the synthetic removal of reviewers. We investigate potential bias introduced by involving applicants in the process, and find that review scores from both applicants and non-applicants have a similar correlation of r=0.28 with other reviews within a project, matching previous observations using traditional approaches. Finally, we find that the ability of projects to apply to several rounds allows to both foster the further implementation of successful early prototypes, as well as provide a pathway to constructively improve an initially failing proposal in an agile manner. This study quantitatively highlights the benefits of a frugal community review system for agile resource allocation.

In 2021, Frontex conducted a Technology Foresight on Biometrics for the Future of Travel, with the objective of studying the future of biometrics for its implementation in border check systems that may benefit the work of the European Border and Coast Guard community in the short-, medium- and long-term perspectives. Three experts' consultation events (two Technology Foresight Workshops and a Delphi survey) took place during the project. A broad group of relevant stakeholders was involved in these events to exploit collective intelligence and stimulate consensus-oriented discussions. A custom Technology Foresight methodology was developed, opening the door to the exploration of the vast field of biometric technologies, which were analysed from various perspectives in the context of border checks. Each of the phases of this complex research study produced its own set of insights. Due to the substantial amount of information provided and the adopted participatory foresight approach, this study will directly contribute to an enhanced understanding of the relevance and applicability of novel biometrics and technology foresight, as well as to identify areas of strategic interest and to make informed decisions about paths of future developments in biometrics. In this article we summarise the main results of the research study (see Frontex, 2022). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on data provided by the Regional Innovation Scoreboard on 23 capital and 184 non-capital regions in Europe, slacks-based models of data envelopment analysis (DEA) reveal that the efficiency by which business research and innovation inputs are converted at regional-level aggregated innovative sales output in small and medium-sized enterprises was significantly lower in capital regions in the period 2006–14. In view of efficiency maximization, a majority of the capital regions overinvest in non-research and development innovation activities, are over-specialized in knowledge-intensive industries, and fall behind in converting research and innovation inputs in intermediary intellectual property outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, systems-based approaches are taken in agri-food research and innovation (R&I). Such approaches also align with changes in science governance and new policies related to research impact and responsible research and innovation. However, taking a holistic view of food systems to maximise impact from R&I in a societally acceptable manner poses theoretical and methodological challenges. How can diverse actors come to occupy roles in forming and pursuing common visions towards more sustainable food systems? This paper focuses on how social science can activate, mediate and add rigour to systems-based approaches. An overview is presented of the policy context in which greater attention is paid to systems-based approaches and we present a framework to theoretically and practically support systems-based approaches: transdisciplinarity and the “multi-actor approach” (MAA). These approaches explain practically how different scientific contributions and non-scientific actors can be engaged and unified in creatively addressing R&I challenges. Overall, because social science is used to inform and deliver R&I outcomes that take into account the whole system of actors, their different values and expectations and their interactions and knowledge exchange, it is a crucial source of knowledge for advancing and meeting the challenges of systems-based approaches. Illustrating this, we present a profile of projects where social science has been applied to enhance R&I within a systems-based approach. However, we also signal caveats, qualifications and provisos in applying such approaches. This paper will be of interest to researchers and practitioners planning to incorporate social science to systems-based R&I initiatives to avoid pitfalls and add rigour.

Earlier this year, the European Commission presented its highly anticipated proposal for the European Health Data Space, with a view to harness “the power of health data for people, patients and innovation”. Considering this objective, the present special issue addresses the governance of health data for research uses by discussing the balancing approach among the diverse aspirations of this ambitious proposal and ways to ultimately preserve trust in such endeavours.

Climate changes and depleting natural resources call for the urgent sustainability transition of the economy. This also refers to food systems, which are a vital part of the economy directly linked to the nature. The first step in creating better forward-looking policies for the transition of food systems is identification of knowledge gaps to target R&D spending. In the paper we focus on the presentation and analysis of research directions that constitute future challenges for the transformation of research and development in Poland. The methodology of research applied in the study is based on participatory action research philosophy. The approach to determine the research challenges and needs included round tables and focus groups under the BIOEAST initiative. The results show that the most important weakness is low level of R&D expenditure in bioeconomy sectors, while the strength is a large number of new active entities for implementation of innovations, supporting bioeconomy and science-practice cooperation. The key recommendation is increasing the R&D spending and prepare national bioeconomy strategy to make use of the large potential of the Polish bioeconomy sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the transformative partnership between Duke Global Neurosurgery and Neurology (DGNN) and Uganda, emphasizing the power of dyads in international collaboration. It details the partnership's focus on service, research, and training, highlighting key accomplishments like the establishment of a neurosurgery residency program, expansion of services, and an epilepsy clinic. Challenges such as resource constraints and cross-cultural collaboration are addressed. Recommendations are provided for developing similar partnerships, underlining the importance of mutual respect, shared goals, and long-term commitment. The DGNN-Uganda dyad is a blueprint for leveraging collaboration to improve global neurosurgical care and reduce health care inequities., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors have no relevant disclosures., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Like all organisations globally, South African universities were caught off-guard by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. To manage its financial and contractual/legal risks when faced with a threat such as a pandemic, an organisation needs integrated insight through the use of available information to assess possible disruptions and to be able to respond appropriately. This study analyses the status of South African universities in respect of their research and innovation offerings, and in particular the nature of their research contracts and their ability to respond to a threat such as COVID-19. Interviews were conducted with senior managers in seven South African universities. Some of the themes that emerged from these interviews were analysed using extracts from the financial management maturity model (FMMM) (Comptroller and Auditor General 2018). It was reassuring to find that the contractual risks can mostly be mitigated. However, the lack of strategic information and lower financial management maturity levels made it difficult for most universities to assess the financial impact of this pandemic and to respond appropriately.

Though much attention is dedicated to the development of its research and innovation policy, the European Union constantly struggles to match the level of the strongest innovators in the world. Therefore, there is a necessity to analyze the individual efforts and conditions of the 27 member states that might determine their final innovative performance. The results of a scientific literature review showed that there is a growing interest in the usage of artificial intelligence when seeking to improve decision-making processes. Data envelopment analysis, as a branch of computational intelligence methods, has proved to be a reliable tool for innovation efficiency evaluation. Therefore, this paper aimed to apply DEA for the assessment of the European Union’s innovation efficiency from 2000 to 2020, when innovation was measured by patent, trademark, and design applications. The findings showed that the general EU innovation efficiency situation has improved over time, meaning that each programming period was more successful than the previous one. On the other hand, visible disparities were found across the member states, showing that Luxembourg is an absolute innovation efficiency leader, while Greece and Portugal achieved the lowest average efficiency scores. Both the application of the DEA method and the gathered results may act as viable guidelines on how to improve R&I policies and select future investment directions.

The European Regional Development Fund devoted around 66 billion Euros to the financial support of innovation and productivity in European enterprises over the 2014–2020 programming period. In this framework, we assessed the implementation of the Operational Programmes dedicated to fostering research and innovation, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises. With this aim, we used a network slack-based data envelopment analysis model paired with cluster analysis that encompasses a multitude of performance framework indicators to assess 53 Operational Programmes from 19 countries. Our findings suggest that compared to transition and less developed regions, more developed regions present a higher room for improvement. Also, less developed regions present a better performance when they employ their funding against more developed regions, suggesting that further funding should be channelled for leveraging research and innovation in the former regions. Finally, Operational Programme managers should focus on solving the problems both inherent to the poor outcomes in terms of enhancing the number of researchers working in improved research infrastructures and promoting the technology transfer between research institutions and enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important to establish a culture of research in the graduate school of state universities to stay relevant and competitive in the knowledge-based economy. This paper attempted to enhance the graduate school research support for the improvement of the scholarly performance of graduate students in a state university. The mixed-methods sequential explanatory design was used. An online survey was conducted using a researcher-made questionnaire developed through Google form and was participated by 106 respondents. Likewise, interviews were participated by 11 interviewees. Furthermore, some of the findings were triangulated using document analysis. Average and rank were used to analyze the survey data. Findings reveal that the scholarly performance of the graduate students "does not meet expectations at all". However, the extent of institutional support of the graduate school "fully meets expectation". The scholarly performances needing improvement were research presentation and publication which were attributed to the need to attune the informational, mentoring, administrative, and resource supports of the institution along with the national standards for graduate research. Hence, opportunities for improvements were identified on the enhancement of the graduate school research support which may help establish research and innovation culture that is comparable to the national and global standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2021, Frontex conducted a Technology Foresight on Biometrics for the Future of Travel, with the objective of studying the future of biometrics for its implementation in border check systems that may benefit the work of the European Border and Coast Guard community in the short-, medium- and long-term perspectives. Three experts' consultation events (two Technology Foresight Workshops and a Delphi survey) took place during the project. A broad group of relevant stakeholders was involved in these events to exploit collective intelligence and stimulate consensus-oriented discussions. A custom Technology Foresight methodology was developed, opening the door to the exploration of the vast field of biometric technologies, which were analysed from various perspectives in the context of border checks. Each of the phases of this complex research study produced its own set of insights. Due to the substantial amount of information provided and the adopted participatory foresight approach, this study will directly contribute to an enhanced understanding of the relevance and applicability of novel biometrics and technology foresight, as well as to identify areas of strategic interest and to make informed decisions about paths of future developments in biometrics. In this article we summarise the main results of the research study (see Frontex, 2022). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]