Jennifer Cassingena Harper

Foresight in innovation policy: Shared visions for a science park and business–university links in a city region

Abstract The paper describes the process and outcomes of an exercise that used the ‘success scenario’ methodology to develop a shared vision of the future of business-university linkages in the city region of Manchester. The aim was to link the strategies of the four universities in the area (and in particular those of the two research universities that were in the process of merging) with the citys own self-vision of its future as a ‘Knowledge Capital’. The resulting report presented a scenario of what success would look like in 2008 in five dimensions: infrastructure, human resources, university missions, inward investment, and networking. The exercise has had a significant impact on regional strategy. The paper considers the design factors involved in gaining this level of action commitment from a foresight activity.

Future-oriented technology analysis as a driver of strategy and policy

Future-oriented technology analysis as a driver of strategy and policy Jennifer Cassingena Harper a , Kerstin Cuhls b , Luke Georghiou c & Ron Johnston d a Malta Council for Science and Technology , Kalkara, Malta b Department Innovation Systems and Policy , Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI , Karlsruhe, Germany c Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, MBS , University of Manchester , UK d Australian Centre for Innovation, Faculty of Engineering , University of Sydney , Australia Published online: 23 Apr 2008.

Mergers and Alliances in Higher Education: International Practice and Emerging Opportunities

Mergers and Alliances in Context. Luke Georghiou, Jennifer Cassingena Harper.- Part I Mergers and Alliances from the Perspective of National. Higher Education Systems.- Mergers and Alliances in France: Incentives, Success Factors and Obstacles. Andree Sursock.- Mergers and Classifications in Romania: Opportunities and Obstacles. Liviu Andreescu, Radu Georghiu, Alina Irimia, Adrian Curaj.- Collaboration Between Universities in Sweden. Daniel Ljungberg, Maureen McKelvey.- Reorganising the Welsh University System. Philip Gummett.- Institutional Mergers in Ireland. Siobhan Harkin, Ellen Hazelkorn.- Institutional Mergers in Chinese Higher Education. Rui Yang.- Institutional Culture of Mergers and Alliances in South Africa. Martin Hall.- Institutional Combinations and the Creation of a New Higher Education Institutional Landscape in post-1994 South Africa. Saleem Badat.- Part II Mergers and Alliances at the Institutional. Level - Experiences and Lessons.- Strategy to Join the Elite: Merger and the 2015 Agenda at the University of Manchester - an update. Luke Georghiou.- The Experience with Creating University of Lorraine by Merging four Former Universities. Jean-Pierre Finance, Herve Coilland, Pierre Mutzenhardt.- Strategic Aggregation of Universities in Spain: The Spanish Program International Campus of Excellence and the Experience of the Technical University of Madrid. Luis Delgado, Gonzalo Leon.- The Process of Merging Romanian Universities: Technical University of Cluj-Napoca - North University of Baia Mare. Radu Munteanu, Dan Calin Peter.- The Experience of University of Western Sydney, Australia. Rhonda Hawkins.- About the Editors.- About the Authors.

The targeted and unforeseen impacts of foresight on innovation policy: the eFORESEE Malta case study

The paper assesses the impacts of a foresight exercise carried out in Malta in 2002–2004. An evaluation framework is applied which seeks to account for the dynamic and possibly turbulent environment of an accession countrys emergent innovation system and to capture and assess those effects of foresight potentially extending well beyond those initially targeted. Three foresight pilots are described, with an emphasis upon an ICT and Education Pilot, and used to illustrate that in addition to targeted effects, important changes were stimulated in terms of tackling broader challenges related to the socio-cultural context. These included the engagement of a broader range of stakeholders in the innovation system and the generation of sustainable policy learning processes. It is concluded that an evaluation framework for foresight should be sensitive to these unforeseen process benefits which have broader societal impacts, even if the lines of attribution are blurred and not easy to trace.

Adapting smart specialisation to a micro-economy – the case of Malta

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to set out the process by which a smart specialisation strategy was developed for a small, peripheral economy in the European Union, the Republic of Malta. It assesses the applicability of the approach in the context of a micro-economy with an industrial structure based on a small number of foreign direct investments and a predominance of micro-enterprises. Design/methodology/approach – The paper follows an action research approach by presenting as a case study the process by which the strategy for Malta was assessed and developed through successive rounds of engagement with business and other actors with the application of scenarios and other prioritisation approaches to facilitate its development. An initial consultation with 20 public sector and representative organisations was followed by a general business workshop and 21 sectoral focus groups. Findings – Lack of critical mass can be mitigated by maximising the generic use of available skills and competences. Gi...

Introduction to a special section: Impacts and implications of future-oriented technology analysis for policy and decision-making

Experiences of recent years place a premium, for governments and individuals, on being able to discern the possible shape of the future: what is likely to influence it, and what can be done to prepare for it. This special section is based on selected papers from the Third International Seville Seminar on Future-Oriented Technology Analysis, held 16–17 October 2008 at Seville, Spain, which addressed the challenge of increasing the impact of future-oriented technology analysis on policy and decision-making. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Mergers and alliances in context

The foundation of a university often reflects the preoccupations of its age, reaching back to theological roots in medieval times, and later meeting the needs of nineteenth century empires for administrators with a rounded education or those of the emerging professional and industrial classes for a highly trained workforce and for research, particularly in science and engineering. Humanistic ideals and academic freedom were embodied as core elements in most cases. Such institutions, with more than a century behind them, have become part of a much larger population of universities as the expectations of and demands for a graduate education drove a global era of expansion and massification. While the core concept of a university remains recognisable almost anywhere that the term is used, substantial differentiation nonetheless exists. This differentiation may lie in the nature of the student population, the focus of the curriculum, the degree of research intensity, the form of governance, financial viability, scale of activity, the degree of autonomy and the extent to which it is embedded in one or more locations. More recently, as rankings and other forms of assessment have entered the picture, the level of ambition of an institution has also become a distinguishing factor.