Centre For Innovation And Development

How to estimate the economic returns of public science is a longstanding but equally challenging topic in quantitative science studies. In this paper, we exploit the staggered foundation of the SENAI Innovation Institutes (ISI) in Brazil since 2012 to estimate their effects on GDP using a difference-in-differences (DiD) approach. Building on historical and institutional insights from interviews on the foundation process, we unravel the conditions under which the parallel trends assumption is likely to hold. Our analysis reveals that these institutes significantly contribute to GDP per capita, with an average treatment effect of 985 BRL (approximately €160). Moreover, by relying on detailed project-level data, we were able to show that the effects come almost exclusively from genuine research projects and not from the provision of scientific services, such as metrology. Finally, tentative calculations suggest that the SENAI ISI institutes may account for about 0.66% of Brazil’s overall GDP, emphasising the importance of applied science in regional economic development and providing insights into effective collaboration between research and industry. • The paper addresses the economic returns of public science, focusing on the SENAI Innovation Institutes (ISI) in Brazil. • Utilizes a difference-in-differences (DiD) approach to estimate the institutes' impact on GDP since their establishment in 2012. • Highlights the importance of historical and institutional insights in validating the parallel trends assumption. • Findings indicate a significant contribution to GDP per capita, with an average treatment effect of 985 BRL (around €160). • The positive effects are primarily attributed to genuine research projects rather than scientific service provision. • Following macroeconomic projections, SENAI ISI institutes represent approximately 0.66% of Brazil’s overall GDP, underscoring the role of applied science in regional economic development.

Abstract The decommissioning of offshore O&G structures in Brazil is substantial and an ongoing challenge. Sustainability of such operations can be increased by robust business models that provide optimized or completely new processes for dismantling platforms and recycling materials and equipment under the logic of the circular economy and social justice. Brazilian National Petroleum Company (BNPC) is putting forward a technological solution designed to address these challenges between 2024 and 2034, which strategies, goals and scenario will be presented in this paper. We analyze how the innovation ecosystem can promote the Brazilian process of implementing a circular economy in the context of the decommissioning of O&G platforms from the identification of sustainable value opportunities and for the capture of this value. For this we use 4EM to understand how an orchestrating company such as BNPC plans the development of a sustainable decommissioning in Brazil, the Sustainable Value Analysis Tool to build information on sustainable value and the Pie Ecosystem Model to understand how an innovation ecosystem can act to capture the desired sustainable value organizing a new circular business model. Finally, we discuss the insufficiency of a technological innovation system (TIS) to promote sustainable transition and the need for a future study that analyzes, based on a specific framework, the current TIS and an understanding of the longitudinal events related to the Brazilian naval industry and how the activity of dismantling and recycling of platforms and vessels represents a recent element of a transition that has been occurring within this industry.

A demanda social por de uma pesquisa responsável, orientada para a resolução de problemas, e com um impacto real, somada à crise climática e de desigualdade global, está levando as organizações de pesquisa a repensar suas estratégias de impacto para além dos indicadores de desempenho acadêmico baseados em publicações científicas. Algumas dessas organizações realizam pesquisa aplicada e procuram avaliar os efeitos concretos das suas atividades. É o caso das instituições de pesquisa agrícola, cuja missão é melhorar o desempenho dos sistemas eco-agroalimentares em todas as dimensões da sustentabilidade. No entanto, essas avaliações muitas vezes permanecem focadas em linhas específicas de pesquisa e indicadores de desempenho clássicos, sem qualquer reflexão real sobre as teorias de mudança que permitiriam avaliar os impactos. Geralmente essas avaliações privilegiam as métricas quantitativas, concentrando-se em questões como "quais são os benefícios de cada dólar investido?" e os resultados tangíveis da pesquisa (publicações, patentes, tecnologias, eventos), em detrimento da compreensão da apropriação de resultados de pesquisa pelos stakeholders, das mudanças de comportamento associadas e dos mecanismos subjacentes. Esse viés é acentuado por mecanismos de financiamento que favorecem projetos de curto prazo, com estruturas lógicas focadas em resultados, em vez de mudanças comportamentais e impactos como tal. Portanto, é necessária uma visão mais ampla para compreender a pesquisa sob a perspectiva do seu impacto, tanto no nível das organizações, quanto do ecossistema de pesquisa como um todo.

The agricultural sector in Ethiopia is facing a major challenge due to low crop productivity and production caused by pests. To overcome this issue, the use of pesticides is essential. However, the misuse of pesticides is a common practice in the country. To tackle this problem, RAISE-FS project organized a workshop that brought together stakeholders from various sectors. The workshop identified key challenges, opportunities, and leverage points in the pesticide life cycle and discussed ways to address them. The stakeholders discussed registration, formulation, import, marketing, transporting, storage, use, waste disposal, human health, and environmental concerns related to pesticides. By implementing the recommendations from this workshop, Ethiopia can enhance its agricultural productivity sustainably.

Cet article étudie les processus d’émergence, les évolutions et les adaptations qu’a connus l’approvisionnement alimentaire sur l’île de La Réunion, depuis l’abolition de l’esclavage en 1848, jusqu’à nos jours. Nous identifions deux trajectoires de transition, au sein desquelles coexistent plusieurs modalités d’organisation de l’approvisionnement. L’article explicite comment les transitions se succèdent dans un continuum temporel, malgré des crises majeures qui affectent durablement les stratégies des acteurs en présence. En particulier, nous montrons comment les bazardiers ont été capables de s’adapter à ces transformations et de résister aux tentatives de discipline collective imposées par les autorités, tout en préservant leur emprise dans la mise en marché des fruits et légumes.

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a debilitating neuropsychiatric condition often associated with acute liver failure or cirrhosis. Advanced liver diseases are characterized by a leaky gut and systemic inflammation. There is strong evidence that the pathogenesis of HE is linked to a dysbiotic gut microbiota and to harmful microbial by-products, such as ammonia, indoles, oxindoles and endotoxins. Increased concentrations of these toxic metabolites together with the inability of the diseased liver to clear such products is thought to play an important patho-ethiological role. Current first line clinical treatments target microbiota dysbiosis by decreasing the counts of pathogenic bacteria, blood endotoxemia and ammonia levels. This review will focus on the role of the gut microbiota and its metabolism in HE and advanced cirrhosis. It will critically assess data from different clinical trials measuring the efficacy of the prebiotic lactulose, the probiotic VSL#3 and the antibiotic rifaximin in treating HE and advanced cirrhosis, through gut microbiota modulation. Additionally data from Randomised Controlled Trials using pre-, pro- and synbiotic will be also considered by reporting meta-analysis studies. The large amount of existing data showed that HE is a clear example of how an altered gut microbiota homeostasis can influence and impact on physiological functions outside the intestine, with implication for host health at the systems level. Nevertheless, a strong effort should be made to increase the information on gut microbiota ecology and its metabolic function in liver diseases and HE.

Legal considerations have always played a critical role in the development of a sign code, but that role has taken on renewed importance in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Reed v. Town of Gilbert, Ariz., 135 S.Ct. 2218 (2015). A detailed analysis of Reed is obviously beyond the scope of this paper. For our purposes, it is sufficient to note that the Reed Court announced a far more stringent test to determine whether a sign code's provisions are "content-neutral" or "content-based." In short, the Court ruled that any sign code provision that "on its face" considers the message on a sign to determine how it will be regulated is content-based. The practical effect of finding that a sign code provision is content-based is to heighten the judicial scrutiny of such a provision if challenged. A provision that is content-neutral is subjected only to intermediate judicial scrutiny: the provision will be upheld if government can demonstrate that the regulation serves a substantial governmental interest and is narrowly-tailored to achieve that interest. In contrast, a provision that is content-based is subjected to strict judicial scrutiny: the provision will be upheld only if government can demonstrate that the regulation serves a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive alternative to achieve that interest.

Dans cet article, l’auteur analyse les mécanismes par lesquels des agriculteurs innovateurs partagent leurs expériences de réduction des pesticides au sein d‘une revue professionnelle agricole. Il souligne que leur engagement dans l’action relève d’un régime exploratoire, dans lequel la recherche de nouveauté constitue un objectif en soi. Il interroge la façon dont ces explorations situées sont rendues accessibles à autrui au sein de la revue. Il met en particulier en évidence, en s’inscrivant dans une sociologie pragmatique, deux types de mise en récit permettant de donner prise aux lecteurs sur les faits présentés. Il souligne enfin, alors que l’action publique cherche à s’appuyer sur ces groupes d’innovateurs pour impulser des changements de pratiques agricoles, l’obstacle que peut constituer la dimension politique associée à ce régime d’exploration.