Brian Wixted (PhD)
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Research
Domain 1:
Education, Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Complex
Blog: The velocity of science policy http://scipol-velocity.blogspot.ca/
Keywords
Innovation
policy, governance, strategy, industry-university relations, research
charities, research networks, funding structures, research value, research
impact, policy velocity, competitive landscapes.
Introduction
Societies
over hundreds of years have evolved complex institutional structures to fund,
govern and ‘produce’ educated people, conduct scientific research and encourage
market innovations. Given the classic arguments for market failure there is
considerable government intervention and funding in these activities. Because,
it is government based and in market economies there is a bias away from
considering the strategic nature of government interventions, the academic
literature has a strong focus on the quantity and efficiency of production of
education and innovation. In the footsteps of neoclassical economics
we can give the notation q (quantity) and x (efficiency) to these analytical
foci.
However, in
the business and organisational literature there has, over recent decades, been
a move away from efficiency studies (time and motion etc)
to a focus on the interactions between the organisation and its strategic
environment. We could call this second view the strategic landscape
perspective.
Much of my
work to date has been on the q and x perspective but that is leading me to
begin to pay serious attention to the competitive strategic landscape
implications of ESTI production complexes.
Analysis
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ESTI Production Complexes |
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ESTIq & x |
ESTI Strategic
Landscape |
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System Indicators and Measurement Ø 2001,
Sectoral systems. As part of a team (Marceau, J.,
Wixted, B. and Basri, E. 2001) I worked on a
report on the processed food innovation system in Australia. A summary of the research was
printed here. http://www.abare.gov.au/publications_html/regional/regional_02/foodstats02.pdf Ø 2001, Regional
systems. Amongst a number of
other projects, of particular note here is the report Prof Jane Marceau and I
prepared (2001) for the New South Wales Government on that State’s innovation
system. A version of the work was later presented at a conference and can be
downloaded here: Ø National systems. Early in my career I worked on
preparing indicator reports for the Australian government. Ø With Sam Garret
Jones and Tim Turpin, 2003, we reported on the funding of R&D in
Mozambique. A copy of the final version which was based on our work is
available in Portuguese here:https://www.portaldogoverno.gov.mz/Informacao/ciencia_e_tecnologia/indcadores_c_t_moc.pdf Ø A project on classifying
internal government
research and development for
Industry Canada. http://www.sfu.ca/cprost/docs/Holbrook_wixted_FINAL_rev31.pdf Ø Knowledge Ecologies. Lately I have been
working on developing a paper that is close to my long term interest on how
to map the knowledge interactions in ‘innovation systems’. That is – what are
the flows of codified, tacit, embodied and embrained knowledge between universities,
government laboratories, all business sectors (primary, secondary and
tertiary) and the community in general (ie society
and non-profit sector). You
can download a paper on this topic at: http://www.sfu.ca/cprost/docs/Knowledge_ecologies-CPROST-GATECH.pdf |
Strategy in Research Funding Structures Charities in the research system Ø
Interviewed at the Canadian
Science Policy Conference regarding the role of non-profits and charities in
the research system. http://sciencepolicy.ca/sites/all/interviews/458.htm Ø Paper accepted but not delivered to
the 2012 DRUID conference Ø Paper submitted to an international
conference |
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Research q and x and Impact Ø 2001, Report to the Australian Government (the Australian Nuclear
Science and Technology Organisation pricing its research (lead author/researcher). Ø 2003, Report to the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council on international comparability of
metrics between medical research funding agencies. Ø 2004, New Zealand Government:
with colleagues I was involved in a strategic review of the New Zealand Health Research Council. Ø 2007, British
Columbia Provincial Government. What is the value of research experience for post-graduate students?
Is this a meaningful approach to conceptualising the value of research and
more particularly the largest output of university systems – graduates? A
copy of the report is available here: Ø 2013, “Capturing the Impacts” of Research with Catherine Beaudry a discussion paper released by SSHRC. |
Competitive / Strategic Landscapes Ø Paper under development which argues that we need to shift from a
production to a strategic behavioural perspective. |
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Research Networks q and x (a special
case) Ø Work for the
Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and the Health of Population
Networks see the report on the workshop http://www.sfu.ca/cprost/events.html Ø Prometheus 2012
(with Adam Holbrook). Ø |
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ESTIq & x Policy Ø 10 years experience with the Australian Federal Government
on science and technology policy plus policy relevance is a focus of much of
my work is this domain of measuring systems and evaluating performance. Ø Wixted, B.,
Marceau, J., Davison, K. and Bjorkli, M. (2003) Government Support for
Innovation: An International Comparison of Programs in Australia and Nine
OECD Countries, a report to
the Australian Commonwealth Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources:
Canberra. Ø Presentation at the
Canadian Science Policy Conference in Toronto 2009. Presentation available here:: http://www.sfu.ca/~bwa11/CSPC2009-wixted.pdf
Listen
to the audio of the session Best
practices in science policy from other nations.
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Disruptive
Innovation Policy Ø Research Money |
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Teaching and
workshops Ø I am
available to present at workshops on the value of research. Ø With Sam
Garrett Jones and Tim Turpin I was involved in a training program for experts
from Mozambique (202) and with Adam Holbrook I have recently run workshops
for the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (2007) the BC Ministry
of Advanced Education (2007) and SSHRC (2008). Ø 2007 – worksop to BC MSFHR on research
network evaluation. |
Teaching and
workshops |
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Interesting
Links Centre for Industry and Innovation
Studies (A new name for my previous research centre AEGIS) at the University
of Western Sydney Ø |
Interesting
Links |