As part of UNU-MERIT’s UNESCO Chair on Science, Technology and Innovation Policies for Sustainable Development for Latin America, we proudly announce our series of webinars on Science, Technology and Innovation Policies for Sustainable Development in Latin America. The meetings will be framed around four main challenges for STI policies in the region. These topics crucially depend on the intrinsic characteristics of the region, as well as on global trends in the changing techno-economic pa...
At the invitation of the Government of Kerala, India, Dr Nanditha Mathew, Research Fellow, participated in the Loka Kerala Sabha convention as an independent expert contributor. Loka Kerala Sabha was formed to deepen the democratic space and debate on the directionality of policies by hearing the voices of experts in different fields, including those who are immigrants. In this interview, she outlines why academic and policy engagement at the state level has national and international imp...
A post by Nordine Es-Sadki. The Community Innovation Survey (CIS) is the reference survey on innovation in enterprises. The EU Member States first introduced the survey in 1992; since then, it has become the regular biennial data collection. UNU-MERIT’s Anthony Arundel has been involved in the early stages of the CIS’s development and was later joined by other UNU-MERIT colleagues. Since 2004 our Institute has been the main contractor to Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, assigned...
This article is republished from Development Matters. Read the original article here. A joint post By Michele Delera, Prof Carlo Pietrobelli, UNU-MERIT , and Elisa Calza and Dr Alejandro Lavopa, UNIDO[1] There are many controversies among economists but one fact is undisputed: long-run productivity growth depends on the absorption and deployment of new technologies. Some estimates indicate that differences in technology diffusion account for a quarter of cross-country differences in per capita i...
The idea that we are living in an entrepreneurial age, experiencing rapid disruptive technological innovation on a scale amounting to a new “industrial revolution” is a pervasive modern myth. Scholars have written academic papers extolling the coming of the “entrepreneurial economy”. Policymakers and investors have pumped massive amounts of funding into start-up ecosystems and innovation. Business schools, universities and schools have moved entrepreneurship into their core curricula....
Most discussions about artificial intelligence (AI) are characterised by hyperbole and hysteria. Though some of the world’s most prominent and successful thinkers regularly forecast that AI will either solve all our problems or destroy us or our society, and the press frequently report on how AI will threaten jobs and raise inequality, there’s actually very little evidence to support these ideas. What’s more, this could actually end up turning people against AI research, bringing significant pro...
Prof. Luc Soete will address an informal meeting of EU ministers in Tallinn, Estonia, on 25 July 2017. Seeking to improve the coherence and openness of EU research and innovation partnerships, he joins speakers including Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, and Pascal Lamy, former Director-General of the World Trade Organization. The meeting will also consider the interim evaluation of Horizon 2020 and the future of European research and innovation funding. ...