Many research funding agencies have recently adopted what I define here as the new impact agenda. Naturally, funding agencies want to know what is the impact of the research they have funded. The new impact agenda is ambitious and demanding, but it has some important challenges too. To be sure, assessing the impact of research … Continue reading
In a recent comparative study of the innovation policies of four regions we have analyzed the extent to which they have changed trajectories. Surprisingly, only one out of the four has changed. The extent to which regional innovation policies have changed recently is a relevant question to put due to three important new trends. Firstly, during the … Continue reading
The traditional view is that universities must transfer their knowledge in order to foster innovation. This is a one-way direction. My argument is that a two-dimensional view is needed, acknowledging that economic and societal actors engagement with universities’ knowledge production is equally crucial. “How can we encourage the commitment of universities to knowledge transfer?” This was the main … Continue reading
We still know very little about who, what and how is being learned from the extensive evaluation of governmental programs. Our recent findings show that only two out of four types of learners actually learn, and that they learn different things. This is good and bad. Many governments have increased their efforts on evaluating policy … Continue reading
The European Parliament and the European Council are currently debating a new legislation about data protection. In the aftermath of Snowden’s affair and in the dawn of the big data era, there is currently a tendency in the political debate towards maximizing personal protection. This is indeed an important matter, and a necessary debate. Individual … Continue reading
Susana Borras Blog 