Norma Morris

Science Policy in Action: Policy and the Researcher

Government policies for science, usually incorporatingeconomic and social aims, are increasingly influencing the contentand management of university research. This essay discusses theinfluence of selected science policies on individual researchersand group leaders. Within the limitations of a case study, itargues that policies that steer the content of research have agreater influence on research behaviour, than do policies relatedto overall research management. Increasing pressures for compliancewith mission-objectives point to the need for closer discussionbetween those who make policy decisions, and the wider researchcommunity.

Academic researchers as ‘agents’ of science policy

This paper focuses on the interests and strategies of the academic researcher as agent in the research and science policy system. It looks in particular at the UK context, and the structural and operational features that mitigate principal-agent tensions and allow academic ‘agents’ considerable freedom of action. It examines how academics themselves perceive their role, whether they exhibit classic agent behaviour and what they are observably doing. This latter includes some strategies to deal with problems (complementary to those besetting the principal) inherent to the situation of agent. Possible implications are discussed for the conduct of research and the sustainability of the system. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Scientists' coping strategies in an evolving research system: the case of life scientists in the UK

Scientists in academia have struggled to adjust to a policy climate of uncertain funding and loss of freedom from direction and control. How UK life scientists have negotiated this challenge, and with what consequences for their research and the research system, is the empirical entrance point of this paper. We find that policy impacts can be modulated and buffered by strategies and compromises devised and deployed at research performer level. This shifts conceptualisation from terms of responses to one of more or less proactive strategies of scientists and science organisations which add up, intentionally or unintentionally, to shifts in the overall system.

The developing role of departments

Abstract This study explores how university departments are changing under the influence of both internal and external pressures, including new paradigms for research, the growth of ‘new managerialism’ in universities, restructuring, increasingly prescriptive government policies for science, and driving forces within science itself. Data from in-depth interviews show these pressures at work in four biological sciences departments and indicate some of the means by which departments can gain acceptance for new management roles. Scientific strategy and staffing matters provide examples of different kinds of commitment to active management at the departmental level. It is suggested that departments are evolving towards a positive role as a further intermediary mechanism in the research system, and through development of their managerial role can help to defuse tensions between researchers’ needs and pressures from external funders and users.

Volunteer Research Subjects’ Experience of Participation in Research on a Novel Diagnostic Technology for Breast Cancer

Although volunteer research subjects play a crucial role in the development of new health technologies, there have been relatively few in-depth studies of what participation in research means to them, and how they manage and make sense of the research encounter. Using constructivist perspectives we analyze data from 15 United States-based women taking part in tests of prototype instrumentation with potential for cancer diagnosis, comparing their responses with findings from a larger study (using the same interview methodology) on United Kingdom-based women participating in a similar program. For both groups the prime concerns emerging at interview related to the social rather than the physical challenges of participation. Both deployed similar discursive strategies to manage these tensions.We suggest that, at least within the limits of the kind of low-risk, nontherapeutic research studied, lessons can be drawn for research management, particularly the key role of the researcher—researched working relationship in assuring mutually satisfactory outcomes.

Vial bodies: conflicting interests in the move to new institutional relationships in biological medicines research and regulation

Abstract This paper looks at the system for regulation and quality control of biological medicines as an exemplar of how changes in government/industry/academia relationships over a broader canvas may impinge on a governments regulatory function, especially where this function requires an ongoing commitment to science-based decision making and scientific research. It argues that the present system of biologicals regulation is predicated on a number of assumptions about the roles and relationships of government, industry and the research community (necessary partners in regulation), many of which are now only dubiously valid. The regulatory system for biologicals has been subject to many of the same pressures that have stimulated change in government/industry/academia relationships. In addition, new scientific developments have opened up new opportunities and new problems. This combination of factors is both forcing the pace of change, and increasing concerns that in the drift towards a more contemporary model of relationships, conflicts of interest may occur. Using published sources and the results of a postal survey, the paper explores the potential for conflict at various levels and discusses in more detail two issues (independent testing and future location of research) which highlight the concerns arising and suggest some potential policy options for the future.

Are You Sitting Comfortably? Perspectives of the Researchers and the Researched on ‘being comfortable’

In a study of volunteers in medical research we found contrasting readings of “being comfortable” by the volunteer research subjects and the researchers. Although the experimental process (testing a new kind of diagnostic technology) involved some physical discomfort—and the researchers focused on this—the volunteers’ concerns centred on feeling socially comfortable and managing feelings of embarrassment or isolation, and they generally made light of the physical aspects. The bias of volunteer concerns, which is understandable in terms of the different situations of researchers and volunteers and the different tensions they create, has potential implications for the engagement of researchers with their research subjects and prevailing standards for the ethical and accountable conduct of research. Both authors contributed to all aspects of preparing this article. The work was approved by the Joint UCH/UCL Research Ethics Committee.

Biological medicines in the age of biotech: Public policy issues

Some of the major public anxieties in public health matters in recent years, as well as some of the greatest medical achievements, have concerned the class of medicines known as ‘biologicals’. Take, for example, blood and blood products. They are an essential and life-saving component of everyday medical practice. But the AIDS epidemic provided painful evidence of how disease could be transmitted by donated blood or products made from it, such as clotting factors for the treatment of haemophilia (Berridge, 1996, p. 134). Subsequently there have been public scandals or public inquiries in several countries about the safety of blood and blood products and the effectiveness of controls (Baiter, 1999; Health Canada, 1997).

Role of patient feedback in the design and implementation of clinical trials of optical tomography of the breast

We report preliminary findings from a study of patient-volunteer experience in a clinical trial of optical mammography. We hypothesise that this qualitative data can usefully supplement the technical data collected during clinical tests and be of practical value in decision-making about design modifications, development priorities, and improving acceptability to patients. Findings from interviews with volunteers to date suggest that this method may establish new design criteria not deducible from routine data collection.

Constructing a safe research environment: Technology talk between researchers and volunteer research subjects

This paper analyses how talk between researchers and their volunteer human subjects works to construct a safe and supportive environment in a laboratory setting where women volunteers participate in the development of a new imaging technology with potential for diagnosing breast cancer. Drawing on discourse analysis perspectives, we explore the work talk has to do in order to facilitate the instrumental, ethical and social dimensions of the interaction between researchers, volunteers and technology. An important cross-cutting theme is the use of various discursive strategies by both researchers and volunteers to manage perceptions of risk and construct a safe research environment, which will foster the active cooperation from volunteers necessary to achieve successful research outcomes. We draw attention to the interactive and two-way character of the technology talk observed in our research setting and how it co-produces researchers, volunteer subjects and the technology and supports the working social relationship between them that is vital to success.