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Research Departments (research + department)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Addiction research centres and the nurturing of creativity: The Swiss Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Drug Problems.

ADDICTION, Issue 5 2009
future, present
ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to offer an account of the history, the current status and the future of substance use research at the Swiss Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Drug Problems (SIPA). Although founded originally by the temperance movement in 1901, its policy has shifted over time towards one which accepts an alcohol-consuming culture made up of self-determined but well-informed consumers, while still supporting those who choose to live an abstinent life. In the beginning, SIPA was involved primarily in collecting alcohol-related information and making it available to professionals and the general public. From the late 1960s SIPA began conducting its own research projects; by the mid-1970s it had set up its own in-house research department. In 2001, SIPA was appointed a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Substance Abuse, Research, Prevention and Documentation. As a private non-governmental organization, most of its funding comes from external research commissions. SIPA participates in a variety of international projects [e.g. Gender Alcohol and Culture: An International Study (GenACIS), European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Drugs (ESPAD) and Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC)] and contributes to numerous national research projects dealing with substance use. It has also forged close links with more than 50 other research institutions in Switzerland and world-wide. Thanks to its work over the last 30 years, SIPA has become a chief port of call for alcohol use research in Switzerland. In the future, SIPA will continue to monitor substance use, while stepping up its prevention research activities and ensuring that it is able to react more promptly to emerging phenomena. [source]

Female Academics in a Knowledge Production Society

HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2002
Erica Halvorsen
In the latter half of the twentieth century, the ,Professional Society' was, and continues to be, replaced by a ,Knowledge Society'. One of the characteristics of the ,Professional Society' was its masculine culture and hierarchies. This paper examines the effect that the shift from a ,Professional Society' to a ,Knowledge Society' has had on the careers of female academics. It considers the career paths of vice,chancellors and goes on to examine the effects of geographical mobility on promotions. In addition, the significance of high proportions of professors in highly,rated research departments, and the gender implications of that, is examined. In the concluding section it is argued that, while universities continue to support the hierarchies of the ,Professional Society', it is to the detriment both of women and of knowledge production. [source]

Embedding nursing and therapy consultantship: the case of stroke consultants

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 2 2009
Christopher R Burton
Aims and objectives., As the basis for the design of career development opportunities for current and aspiring nursing and therapy consultants, we aimed to explore the factors that shape how these roles have embedded in UK stroke services. Background., The non-medical consultant role has been introduced into UK health care services to provide opportunities for experienced practitioners to progress their careers in clinical practice. Whilst there have been evaluations of the impact of the role on service delivery, little attention has been paid to the pathways towards consultantship. Design., An exploratory design, incorporating focus group discussions, was used to address the research questions. Participating consultants, both nurses and allied health professionals, worked in stroke services, although it is anticipated that the results will have wider application. Methods., Two focus groups were held with non-medical consultants in stroke from across the UK. Participants had the opportunity to comment on an interim paper prior to publication of the results. Thirteen consultants took part in the study. Results., A lack of consensus about the nature of clinical expertise and a diverse range of pathways towards consultantship were identified. Health care policy had presented the opportunity for consultants to be entrepreneurial in the development of stroke services, although this had limited the scope for the development of professional knowledge. Inflexible programmes to support aspiring consultants may limit the opportunities to develop these entrepreneurial skills. Conclusions., This study challenges health care organizations and the education and research departments that support them to think creatively in the way that the non-medical consultant role is embedded, and that this should draw on the commitment of existing consultants to support succession planning. Relevance to clinical practice., The identification of those aspects of career pathways that current consultants have found to be helpful will be useful in designing opportunities for aspiring consultants. [source]

Supply-Side Innovation and Technology Commercialization

JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 4 2009
Gideon D. Markman
abstract The majority of research and practice tends to conceptualize innovation as a vertically coupled, intra-organizational process. We expand this perspective by conceptualizing innovation as a vertically decoupled, inter-organizational process and by studying the role of research universities as suppliers of discoveries to this market for innovation. We combined logic from agency and real options theories to explain why the outcomes of technology commercialization are a function of licensing strategies, the autonomy of technology licensing offices (TLOs), and the incentives bestowed on scientists, research departments, and TLO officers. We rely on data from licensing surveys, interviews with 128 TLO directors, and , for convergent validity , from web-based searches of the TLOs of American universities and the US Patent and Trademark Office. Results suggest that commercialization outcomes (in this case, revenue and start-up creation) are enhanced when TLOs employ diverse licensing strategies, TLOs enjoy greater autonomy, universities share revenues with scientists' departments, and universities compensate TLOs officers well. Results also show that late entrants , typically underperforming universities , inflate royalty shares to scientists as a means to rectify their commercialization record. We conclude with a discussion of this study's contribution to the literature on innovation and technology commercialization. [source]