Biotechnology policy and achievement 1980-88

Much progress has been made in line with the spirit of Spinks, but it is inevitable that perspectives have changed since 1980. At the research level, we know that much strategic work remains to be done before the full industrial benefits of biotechnology can be secured, even though there has been a gratifying improvement in academic-industrial liaison. The industrial progress and dissemination of biotechnology has been slower than Spinks implied, but we have a clear understanding of the importance of such contributors to the climate for investment as balanced regulation, training and public perception. The international dimension is important not only for the potential benefit of research and development programmes but also to monitor progress in the U.K. with respect to our competitors. Biotechnology now finds itself in a new framework of Government policy for innovation; there are new challenges in sustaining and adding to the impetus built up by the academic and industrial communities.     

Discursive Shifts in Dutch River Management: ‘Deep’ Institutional Change or Adaptation Strategy?

This paper argues that a discursive shift is taking place in Dutch water policy, from ‘a battle against water’ to ‘living with water’ or ‘accommodating water’. Yet we ask ourselves whether this shift is just an adaptation strategy of the existing elite group of water managers, who pay lip-service to new management approaches in order to maintain their vested interests, as some authors claim, or whether it implies ‘deep’ institutional change, e.g. in terms of the emergence of new water institutions, power relations and procedures. While investigating this question, we make use of the ‘policy arrangement approach’, which pays attention to institutional and discursive aspects of policy making alike. Our conclusion is that we are currently observing institutional changes beyond ‘policy talk’, particularly in terms of new legislation and procedures. However, it is too early to speak of ‘deep’ institutional change in Dutch water management, because the former water institutions are still maintaining their power positions, despite the availability of additional resources for policy and research as well as the emergence of several new modes of governance.     

Poverty and institutional management stand-off: a restoration and conservation dilemma for mangrove forests of Tanzania

Mangrove forests of Tanzania are reserved by law, but the capacity to effectively enforce this institution has remained far from reach and mangrove forests continue to be exploited as cheap sources of wood and forest land for other uses. Often, the rural poor who depend on mangroves for their subsistence are pointed out by the state institutions as culprits of the degradation. Promisingly though, this paradigm is being offset by the emerging positive view about human proclivity for caring and nurturing common resources. Traditional and community based forest management practices are emerging as appropriate alternatives to state control and institutional arrangement for ensuring sustainable management of forest resources. Nonetheless, community based management has not yet been robustly implemented for mangrove forests in Tanzania. Retrospectively, this paper argues that nationalization of mangrove forests has not been successful in reversing mangrove degradation. The experiences have instead been the frictions between people and the state, as desperate rural poor continue to plunder on and make a living at the expense of mangrove forests. The paper exemplify how policy failure, weak or dysfunctional state institutions in Tanzania compounded by little participatory awareness and self commitment are ruining the restoration and conservation initiatives.     

Data modeling and data communication in GenomEUtwin.

Database infrastructure has become a critical component for competitive life sciences research and discovery. The explosion of data requires that the data are properly loaded, accessed, managed, queried, analyzed, and shared with others. The key purpose of the population-based twin cohorts housed at different institutions in Europe is to gather an extremely large quantity of information from their twin populations, and share it. Longitudinal research over a long period of time, hopefully generations, demands completely new methods and systems to handle the gathering of information and storing. These cohorts bring to the fore problems concerning the need for a standardization of research data and a computer and storage strategy. In the following we describe the preliminary strategy being implemented in the Database Core of GenomEUtwin.     

Prescriptions for medical research. I--Management within the Medical Research Council.

In their submission to the government in advance of the white paper on science policy in the United Kingdom the Medical Research Council commends the MRC''s own approach to managing directly funded research. But a series of semi-structured interviews with the directors of some of the MRC''s units suggests a gap between the MRC''s model of managed research and the reality. Although such units are theoretically managed from MRC head office (and units are charged an overhead for this), in practice each unit runs its own affairs. Between major reviews average contact time with the head office contact person is seven hours a year. The first paper argues that a purchaser-provider split would recognise the benefits of decentralisation and allow units to bid for research funds from several sources, the successful ones guaranteeing their survival through a rolling series of research programmes. The second paper criticises the MRC''s cumbersome peer review system. Reliance on outside experts atrophies the scientific skills of head office staff and builds delays into decision making. A purchaser-provider model would allow the head office scientific staff to act like commercial research and development managers, commissioning research, and using the outcome, rather than peer review, as a criterion for continued funding.     

MEDICAL RESEARCH—The Program of the U. S. Public Health Service

Federal Government expenditures for medical research have increased apace in the last ten years. The increase in federal research funds has stimulated support from private sources; contributions from other than federal sources have doubled.More than half of medical research funds are being used by universities, hospitals, and other nonprofit institutions, and less than one-fourth by laboratories of the Federal Government.Grants-in-aid of research, fellowships and extended training are made on the advice of Advisory Councils made up of leaders in the various research fields. The previous record of research by staffs and faculties of institutions is taken into account. Special attention is given to unknown investigators and small projects.Noninterference with a scientist in the conduct of research is a basic principle of all grants. He may change the direction of his research to pursue promising leads without asking permission.Continuity of grants so that promising projects need not be abandoned at the end of a grant period is given special consideration.     

Medical research; the program of the U.S. Public Health Service

Federal Government expenditures for medical research have increased apace in the last ten years. The increase in federal research funds has stimulated support from private sources; contributions from other than federal sources have doubled. More than half of medical research funds are being used by universities, hospitals, and other nonprofit institutions, and less than one-fourth by laboratories of the Federal Government.Grants-in-aid of research, fellowships and extended training are made on the advice of Advisory Councils made up of leaders in the various research fields. The previous record of research by staffs and faculties of institutions is taken into account. Special attention is given to unknown investigators and small projects. Noninterference with a scientist in the conduct of research is a basic principle of all grants. He may change the direction of his research to pursue promising leads without asking permission. Continuity of grants so that promising projects need not be abandoned at the end of a grant period is given special consideration.     

Plant biotechnology in South Africa: Micropropagation research endeavours, prospects and challenges

Research in plant biotechnology is playing a crucial role in the production and conservation of plant-based resources globally. Being a country with rich and diverse floral resources, South Africa has a genuine opportunity to develop efficient and competitive plant biotechnology sectors. South Africa has a policy framework, in the form of a National Biotechnology Strategy that supports biotechnology research. The presence of competitive research infrastructure coupled with the government's willingness to commit significant resources will certainly help realise this. South Africa's plant biotechnology research has potential to make more significant contributions to the national economy. In this review, whilst highlighting the success, the research endeavours, prospects and challenges hindering the practical application of micropropagation research outputs are discussed.     

Focus: Addiction: U.S. Policy Responses to Calls for the Medical Use of Cannabis

This paper discusses the evolution of U.S. policy responses to calls to allow patients to use cannabis for medical purposes. It first summarizes the research evidence on the safety and efficacy of cannabinoids for various medical uses. It then outlines the challenges in developing new pharmaceutical cannabinoids that are safe, effective, and acceptable to patients. It briefly describes the strengths and limitations of the different ways in which U.S. states have allowed patients to use cannabis for medical purposes. These include allowing access for research trials only, allowing medical necessity as a defense against prosecution, and allowing commercial medical dispensaries to provide cannabis to approved patients. It argues that liberal definitions of indications for medical cannabis use and the commercialization of medical cannabis supply in California have produced the de facto legalization of recreational cannabis use.     

《名古屋议定书》获取与惠益分享制度对传统生物防治研究的影响与对策

为了保证公平和公正地分享利用遗传资源所产生的惠益,研究和开发中使用的遗传资源必须按照《名古屋议定书》中规定的获取与惠益分享制度进行收集和利用.截至2020年7月,该议定书的缔约方中已有67个国家制定了相关立法,另有57个国家正在制定法律,行政或政策措施.传统生物防治通常是从有害生物的原产地或自然分布区引进天敌资源,用于可持续防治外来入侵有害生物.本文基于履约现状与挑战,分析了获取与惠益分享制度对于传统生物防治研究的影响,并以国际应用生物科学中心为例介绍了获取与惠益分享政策和最佳做法以及履约实践与对策,以期为我国从事传统生物防治研究的机构和科研人员遵守并执行《名古屋议定书》提供参考.     

caGrid: design and implementation of the core architecture of the cancer biomedical informatics grid

MOTIVATION: The complexity of cancer is prompting researchers to find new ways to synthesize information from diverse data sources and to carry out coordinated research efforts that span multiple institutions. There is a need for standard applications, common data models, and software infrastructure to enable more efficient access to and sharing of distributed computational resources in cancer research. To address this need the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has initiated a national-scale effort, called the cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIGtrade mark), to develop a federation of interoperable research information systems. RESULTS: At the heart of the caBIG approach to federated interoperability effort is a Grid middleware infrastructure, called caGrid. In this paper we describe the caGrid framework and its current implementation, caGrid version 0.5. caGrid is a model-driven and service-oriented architecture that synthesizes and extends a number of technologies to provide a standardized framework for the advertising, discovery, and invocation of data and analytical resources. We expect caGrid to greatly facilitate the launch and ongoing management of coordinated cancer research studies involving multiple institutions, to provide the ability to manage and securely share information and analytic resources, and to spur a new generation of research applications that empower researchers to take a more integrative, trans-domain approach to data mining and analysis. AVAILABILITY: The caGrid version 0.5 release can be downloaded from https://cabig.nci.nih.gov/workspaces/Architecture/caGrid/. The operational test bed Grid can be accessed through the client included in the release, or through the caGrid-browser web application http://cagrid-browser.nci.nih.gov.     

Challenges in genetic resources policy making: some lessons from participatory policy research with a special reference to Ethiopia

It is widely recognized that developing countries lack technical and institutional capacity to effectively implement genetic resources policy. This has led Bioversity International (the then IPGRI) to initiate a project called Genetic Resources Policy Initiative (GRPI) in six countries (Ethiopia, Egypt, Zambia, Peru, Vietnam and Nepal). Drawing from the literature and experiences of this project, this paper has attempted to document some of the lessons from the project and present the issues and challenges that need to be addressed for effective genetic resources policy. Recognizing its cross-cutting nature, the paper has argued that genetic resources policy has to be part of the broader development agenda to effectively deal with trade-offs and harmonize the conflicts. Essentially, the important policy question is to strike the balance and simultaneously promote the diversity of genetic resources and welfare outcomes. The major thrust of GRPI has been the multi-disciplinary, -sectoral, and -stakeholder (3M) approach. Despite all its theoretical merits, its implementation has been a serious challenge in practice. This has, among others, been due to ‘‘A project for all is a project for none’’ dilemma. Engaging decision makers in 3M deliberations has revealed that many of them tend to think that maintaining genetic diversity promotes traditional farming and retards agricultural development. Clearly, addressing each of these challenges and policy loopholes requires innovation in a diversity of institutions.     

Pirate cosmopolitics and the transnational consciousness of the entertainment industry

As cultural texts, music and movies generate transnational publics united by shared identities and tastes. As objects of economic value, they fall under the juridical protection of global intellectual property institutions. These institutions aspire to produce their own version of a global citizen qua the responsible consumer. This paper argues that illegal copying and distribution have a capacity to forge new transnational affiliations. At the same time, they are subject ‘abjection’ by the apparatus of copyright enforcement. Focusing on the acts of semantic enclosure that such enforcement produces, the paper concludes that ‘policing’ has been increasingly mobilized as a path to becoming ‘global citizen’, thus reducing possibilities for the development of a critical, pluralistic subjectivity commonly termed ‘cosmopolitan’.     

Exploitation of biotechnology in a smaller company

The establishment of a research-orientated biotechnology company was one of the recommendations of the Spinks Committee. How the National Enterprise Board, the Medical Research Council and private sector financial institutions responded to this recommendation, leading to the formation of Celltech in November 1980, is described. The paper then outlines Celltech's current position (it is no longer a small company) and future plans and describes the two areas of technology in which the company has achieved a leading position: mammalian cell culture and the engineering of the genes coding for monoclonal antibodies. Celltech's methods of working with academia and the benefits to both are then described, and finally the paper tries to reach some conclusions about the part smaller companies play in technological innovation.     

Beyond the sporting boundary: the racial significance of sport through midnight basketball

Abstract

Sport is among the most potent institutions in the production, maintenance and contestation of race in the modern world. The last decade has witnessed a significant increase of sport-based research on the cutting edge of theorizing race and racism in the post-civil rights, post-colonial era. Nonetheless, the study of sport has yet to be seriously engaged by mainstream social scientists. This paper argues that sport scholars need to better demonstrate the powerful, even irreducible racial significance of sport in politics, public policy and popular culture. This argument is illustrated and elaborated with findings from an ongoing, multifaceted research project on midnight basketball in the USA. Key points include: the complexity of racial imagery in and around sport; sport's legitimating functions for racialized neo-liberalism; and the impact of sport and race politics on federal crime policy. Revealed throughout is a more sophisticated understanding of the centrality and complexity of contemporary racial formations.     

A Qualitative Stakeholder Analysis of Avian Influenza Policy in Bangladesh

Avian influenza is a major animal and public health concern in Bangladesh. A decade after development and implementation of the first national avian influenza and human pandemic influenza preparedness and response plan in Bangladesh, a two-stage qualitative stakeholder analysis was performed in relation to the policy development process and the actual policy. This study specifically aimed to identify the future policy options to prevent and control avian influenza and other poultry-related zoonotic diseases in Bangladesh. It was recommended that the policy should be based on the One Health concept, be evidence-based, sustainable, reviewed and updated as necessary. The future policy environment that is suitable for developing and implementing these policies should take into account the following points: the need to formally engage multiple sectors, the need for clear and acceptable leadership, roles and responsibilities and the need for a common pool of resources and provision for transferring resources. Most of these recommendations are directed towards the Government of Bangladesh. However, other sectors, including research and poultry production stakeholders, also have a major role to play to inform policy making and actively participate in the multi-sectoral approach.     

Cost of resistance to parasites in digital organisms

Virtually all organisms are attacked by parasites and are therefore expected to evolve resistance against these natural enemies. Parasite resistance is costly in a wide range of organisms, although the generality of such costs has been questioned, especially when resistance is not based on reallocation of resources. Digital organisms are increasingly used to explore aspects of life in general. In the Tierra system, there is a trade-off between resistance against parasites and competitive ability. Because digital organisms are too simple to store resources, the finding that resistance to parasites is costly in digital organisms suggests that costs of parasite resistance can also occur when resistance is not resource based.     

The World Health Organisation. The regions--too much power,too little effect.

WHO''s regional offices make it structurally one of the most decentralised of all United Nations agencies. But at what cost and to what effect? This article argues that too often the regions give only the illusion of decentralisation while wresting power from WHO''s governing body and prolonging the time taken for resources to reach the point of need.     

Science and policy: valuing framing, language and listening

This paper considers the context for science contributing to policy development and explores some critical issues that should inform science advocacy and influence with policy makers. The paper argues that the key challenges are at least as much in educating conservation scientists and science communicators about society and policy making as they are in educating society and policy makers about science. The importance of developing processes to ensure that scientists and science communicators invest in the development of relationships based on respect and understanding of their audience in both communities and amongst policy makers provides a critical first step. The objectives of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation acknowledge the importance of developing the capacities and public engagement necessary to implement the Strategy, including knowledge transfer and community capacity building. However, the development of targets to equip institutions and plant conservation professionals to explicitly address the barriers to influencing policy development through knowledge transfer and integration require further consideration.     

Integrated management of land and water resources based on a collective approach to fragmented international conventions

Interlinked crises of land degradation, food security, ecosystem decline, water quality and water flow depletion stand in the way of poverty reduction and sustainable development. These crises are made worse by increased fluctuations in climatic regimes. Single-purpose international conventions address these crises in a piecemeal, sectoral fashion and may not meet their objectives without greater attention to policy, legal, and institutional reforms related to: (i) balancing competing uses of land and water resources within hydrologic units; (ii) adopting integrated approaches to management; and (iii) establishing effective governance institutions for adaptive management within transboundary basins. This paper describes this global challenge and argues that peace, stability and security are all at stake when integrated approaches are not used. The paper presents encouraging results from a decade of transboundary water projects supported by the Global Environment Facility in developing countries that test practical applications of processes for facilitating reforms related to land and water that are underpinned by science-based approaches. Case studies of using these participative processes are described that collectively assist in the transition to integrated management. A new imperative for incorporating interlinkages among food, water, and environment security at the basin level is identified.