Top PDF Research Activities of the Desalination Research and Innovation Partnership (DRIP)

To address these critical water supply and energy issues, water agencies in the region embarked on a multi-year project to develop and demonstrate new and innovative technologies in 1997. The goal of the project is to substantially reduce the cost of desalinating Colorado River water, and to develop new, non-traditional water supplies such as brackish groundwater, municipal wastewater, and agricultural drainage water. This project has been termed the Desalination Research and Innovation Partnership (DRIP).

recommendations for the location of a Tularosa Basin desalination facility, and an assessment of the contributions the facility could make. The second priority will provide funds for research on brine disposal alternatives in ‘land locked’ areas such as Phoenix, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada. This work will start with a meeting at the end of November 2001 with various research organizations and representatives of various municipalities in order to coordinate efforts. It is expected this activity will eventually include a road mapping exercise to develop future partnerships and set research priorities. A third priority requires Reclamation to work with State and Federal agencies, the National Science Foundation, universities, and non-government entities to act as a national clearinghouse for desalination technologies. This could produce an information center, library, and web page that includes a database on all desalination projects, pilot plants, research, and operating data. A fourth priority is the establishment of a peer review process to validate the efficacy of the multitude of desalination techniques available. The remaining 2002 program funds will be used to fund research proposals already received during the 2001 proposal competition. The funds will be also used to fund existing partnerships and research commitments.

• Wood Academy (1.5.2011–30.6.2014) The European Social Fund (ESF) – The objective of the project was to establish the Wood Academy Centre of Expertise, which researches, develops, and promotes networking and arranges training for the wood products industry in South-East Finland. The idea was also to offer an open innovation platform for new products and services and explore innovation and commercialization conditions with innovative entrepreneurs in order to reduce unem- ployment resulting from structural change in South- East Finland.

accumulated profits. The above-mentioned differences mainly result from diverging competitive efforts and the unequal innovative success of firms. 3.1 First generation product improvements In this section, we observe the first stage of a patent race in a duopoly market similar to the preceding study (Cantner et al, 2004). Our motivation for incorporating this phase is to let the two initially identical firms differentiate into one large and one small firm (both in terms of their accumulated capital). 1 Of course, one may argue that asymmetry in firm size could also be introduced by simply assigning varying initial endowments. However, we prefer the chosen approach, because we assume that an exogenously imposed market structure is less suitable than an endogenously grown structure for stimulating innovative activities. Let us assume that each firm manages a portfolio that is comprised of n independent products. 2 In order to exclusively concentrate on product innovations, consider the absence of any kind of price competition. The economic success of a firm is solely determined by the accordance of her products’ characteristics to specified demand preferences. Unlike price competition, product attractiveness in our model is not determined on a cardinal scale. Thus, the employed notion of quality competition does not correspond to reverse price competition in the sense of “the-more-the-better”. Rather, quality competition in this setting should be interpreted as a dichotomic variable.

Additionally, and with the objective to provide multidi- mensional KPI analytics, metadata are taken into account. Specifically, financial data about the cost of each project along with the budget distribution per participant are considered. Moreover, data relevant to each organisation participating in the project, such as the country it is based and its type, i.e., whether it is a research organisation, a university or a company, is gathered and leveraged to construct collaboration networks that help quantify the collaboration and diffusion of technology (using different centrality measures) between the beneficiaries. Merging this work with the extracted data analytics and classifica- tion enable us to create a wealth of indicators that can be compared across different types of entities such as funders, time, participating organisations, etc.

ŽIŽLAVSKÝ, O., ŠMAKALOVÁ, P.: Research results in the fi eld of information support for innovation activities. Acta univ. agric. et silvic. Mendel. Brun., 2011, LIX, No. 4, pp. 387–398 The paper deals with an actual issue focused on one of the world wide problem – eff ective development of an innovation process in the company. Just innovation is deemed as an essential part of company’s effi ciency and its development with an impact on overall performance and competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss knowledge and fi ndings of original primary research into South-Moravian companies within two projects of Internal Grant Agency Faculty of Business and Management Brno University of Technology, which were conducted in 2009 and 2010. For this analysis a questionnaire survey was used – the results of the primary research refl ect innovative activities from the top managers’ point of view. The scientifi c aim of the paper is to gain knowledge and analyse the present status of innovative activities as it pertains to Czech and foreign professional literature and in the Czech business environment. Authors proved with help of questionnaire survey that many companies still neglect information support of their innovation activities although given the importance of innovation as an engine of growth. Moreover, as shown by the primary research, the majority of companies lack a sophisticated marketing information system, modelling and analysis of the future market, analyses of customers, their behaviour and unsaid needs, defi nition of price strategies, and analysis of new expansion areas. These fi ndings are not affi rmative for our business environment.

market of innovative commodities and there have been concerns about whether the creation of cooperation is desirable from a social welfare point of view. Since participants have combined their activities under a common control, it is possible that they exercise their combined force and curtail, resulting in restraining their R&D effort and competition in other stages of their connections, arising speculations about the outcomes of competition in final product markets. As Katz and Ordover (1990) say, once a group of firms has innovated successfully and has brought advanced products and processes in the market, it acquires a certain degree of bargaining command over the rival firms and it can exercise oligopolistic or even monopolistic power, bringing pricing distortions in the market for R&D results. Firms which participate in collusion including price and output levels, may behave as a monopoly, they limit their investment and set lower output and higher prices in a way to maximise their aggregate profits, which leads to a decrease in social welfare.

and Innovation, Horizon 2020, but also to contribute to 2 of the 3 long-term political objectives of the new Common Agricultural Political (CAP) of the EU for 2014-2020: viable food production on the one hand and sustainable management of natural resources and climate action on the other hand. PRIMA objectives will also ensure that PRIMA contributes to the sustainable development goals of the EU. Finally, it should be recalled that PRIMA brings added value compared to other initiatives in the field of RDI by being based on the principles of co-ownership, mutual interest and shared benefits. Scientific priorities and the design of the programme have been decided in a spirit of mutual understanding and co-decision between all participating countries. No matter if a Participating State belongs to the EU or is associated to Horizon 2020 or is a MPC, it will have the same rights and obligations in the governance and implementation of the PRIMA, provided that it financially contributes to the programme. This “scientific diplomacy” aspect of PRIMA further enhances the argument in favour of the use of the most stable instrument in the long-term. This has been acknowledged by Ministers in different fora. In particular, the 28 EU Research Ministers adopted Council Conclusions on PRIMA on 5 th December 2014 acknowledging, among others, the potential of this initiative, if based on Article 185 TFEU, “to give research and innovation a bridging role between participating countries, to significantly enhance the EU scientific diplomacy with its Southern Neighbours in the long-term, while providing concrete solutions to common challenges facing EU Member States and MPCs” 1 .

multidisciplinary and requires a multi-actor and cross-border approach. A collaborative approach with a wide set of Participating States can help to increase the required scale and scope, by pooling financial and intellectual resources. Since the objective can therefore be better achieved at Union level by integrating national efforts into a consistent Union approach, by bringing together compartmentalised national research programmes, by helping design common research and funding strategies across national borders, and by achieving the critical mass of actors and investments required, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of

In this DVD we publish the country reports for volumes I, II, III, IV, V and VI of the research “Volunteering across Europe. Organisations, promotion, participation”, to facilitate its dissemination and use on the eve of the European Year of Volunteering 2011, firmly believing that mutual acquaintance and dialogue among volunteers and their organisations constitute essential tools for social innovation and the construction of a European identity for citizens and their movements.

The fundamental principle of this Plan is facing current long term challenges through solidarity and social justice, helping Europe to take advantage in the future so that the European economy is in tune with the demands of competitiveness and social needs, as outlined in the Lisbon Strategy. Immediate reaction was needed to establish a common European response to protect jobs and reactivate growth through cornerstone actions. Europe has bet on key smart investments in the right skills for the greatest impact: investing in selected sectors to create jobs and save energy, addressing immediate competitiveness problems and at the same time investing in the low-carbon knowledge-based economy of the future, promoting efficiency, productivity and innovation.

www.lgbtu.co.uk Page | 11 ‘Training’ Some professionals reported having received specific training around LGBTU issues whilst most said they had received some form of diversity or equal opportunities training and that LGBTU issues had sometimes been mentioned within this. For many, however, LGBTU issues had not come up either at all, or to any significant degree in any of their training. Most practitioners reported being unclear about whether policies or documents existed in their workplace that specifically mention LGBTU young people. Many interviewees had strong feelings and opinions around what should be included in a future training programme for practitioners working with young people. For instance, practitioners overwhelmingly reported that they felt that LGBTU young people themselves should play an active and prominent role in the delivery of training around LGBTU issues. Rights and the law were reported as being important area to include for training as well as considering explicitly, trans and bi-sexual issues, and activities that draw attention to, and recognise, the broader complex issues a (LGBTU) person may experience.

The model Benedicto et al. propose for linguistic fieldwork, and the one implemented in this project, includes training, developing useful material, and joint decision-making. These three aspects will be discussed in the sections below. Every language revitalization partnership comes about in its own way. However, each should be led by community members, and the partnership should focus on the needs and wishes of the community. The current partnership has grown out of the collaborative work that began in 2011 and aims to bring Mi’gmaq speakers, teachers, and linguists together to develop a deeper understanding of the grammar of the language, to develop teaching materials, and to facilitate the learning, speaking, and promotion of Mi’gmaq. Over the course of the last few years, the partnership’s activities and projects have expanded, and now also include linguists and students at Concordia University in Montreal. The linguists maintain a blog and the wiki, and collaborate with speakers to produce linguistic research on the Mi’gmaq language, all of which is publicly available on the blog. 1 Linguists have continued working with a software development company in Montreal, building a database application designed specifically for collaborative work so that all the linguistic data may be stored in a single, well-organized database which is free, open source, and easily sharable between academics and non-academic collaborators. This database is accessible online to all members of the team, using a login, and the information is housed in LingSync servers housed and backed up with cloud storage. In Listuguj, teachers and speakers continue to work on CAN-8, as well as laying groundwork for and piloting a Mentor-Apprentice Program

Another challenge with respect to the further development of the RDI function lies in the way in which the UASs position themselves with regard to the society and the economy. What we have learned so far is that there is mostly a rather ad hoc kind of relation between UASs and public and private sector organizations, especially SMEs. The panel wants to point here especially to the weaknesses in the relationship between the UASs and their private and public partner organizations; weaknesses that can be argued to be surmountable. For example, as discussed above, the UAS sector has apparently not yet managed to develop in their Master level programmes an adequate balance between the individual institution’s interests in strengthening its RDI profile, and the interests of the individual students and employers of students enrolled in these programmes. Furthermore, there seems to be a lack of structured bridging mechanisms to narrow the socio-cultural gap between UASs and society. Of course, we heard interesting examples of the attempts of individual institutions to improve the connections, e.g. dissemination of RDI outcomes through regular newspaper columns, morning coffee meetings or brainstorming workshops together with representatives from economy. Nonetheless, overall there is not much evidence for the co-creation of knowledge, for the joint development of innovation strategies on a regional or higher level in which both UAS and industry take part, even though a number of UASs take part in regional innovation strategy work. Further the panel did not find many structured overviews of the output of RDI projects or the RDI expertise and experiences of UASs easily accessible for interested companies and organizations. It is only fair to say that there are also very few funding mechanisms incentivizing and supporting RDI contacts and setting up structured partnerships with public and private partners in relevant areas.

8 (1) Nr. of scientific publications with at least one author based in a public research institution and one author based in the private sector. Publications are assigned to the country in which the business companies or other private sector organisations are located. This number of public-private co-authored research publications is normalized by the population (in million inhabitants);

The first two components of the project have already begun. The co-­‐investigator (Katherine Lyon) is engaged in participant observation as a volunteer with various Kits House seniors programs. This allows us to examine and document the informal operation of Kits House as well as the day-­‐to-­‐day activities of staff and seniors at Kits House. The policy documents will give us a window into how the decisions and activities of individuals at Kits House (whether residents, staff or management) are enabled or constrained through written regulations and procedures. The policy documents will also allow us to trace the

Shen, attended Fudan University in Shanghai, China. While there, he competed on a team which finished 6th in the 2005 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International College Programming Contest after winning the regional finals in Dhaka, China. 4,109 teams, representing 1,582 universities from 71 countries, participated in the international competition. Sponsored by IBM, the contest fosters creativity, teamwork, and innovation in building new software programs, and enables students to test their ability to perform under pressure. It is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious programming contest in the world. He also competed in the Google Code Jam finals in China and was ranked one of the top 40 coders in the competition. He graduated in 2008, ranked 9th in overall GPA, and first his last two years.

Steep farmland was contoured and stone risers were added, hedge rows were planted with fruit crops including litchi, citrus, guava and mango, a water diversion channel was constructed, and a multi-purpose tree species nursery was established. Frequent visits to the village to monitor activities and provide advice by scientists and extension agents from the RNR-RDC played a key role in changing the mindset of the community. The impacts are visible: steep, degraded farmland with gullies and rills has turned into terraced fields with stone risers and grass slips with edible bamboo plants and fruit trees along the contours.

Therefore, it is necessary to make the data as broadly available for analysis as possible. For GEOSS to develop its vision and potential, it is essential to promote the full and open exchange of data in accordance with the GEOSS Data Sharing Principles. In this context, full and open exchange means that data made available through GEOSS are made accessible with minimal time delay and with as few restrictions as possible. Making data easily accessible would help policy-makers improve legislation. It would allow businesses to increase their international activities and citizens to become more aware of their environment.

This Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) defines the main technical and non-technical priorities to achieve the BDV PPP objectives (see Section 1.5), and it describes a research and innovation roadmap for the BDV PPP. The BDV SRIA was prepared using an extensive process that has heavily engaged with the wider Big Data Value community. Wide ranges of stakeholders have contributed to the SRIA in different forms of engagement (see Appendix 6.4). It is built upon inputs and analysis from SMEs and Large Enterprises, public organisations, and research and academic institutions. Stakeholders include suppliers and service providers, data owners, and early adopters of Big Data in many sectors. The process included multiple workshops and consultations to ensure the widest representation of views and positions including the full range of public and private sector entities. These have been carried out to identify the main priorities with approximately 200 organisations and other relevant stakeholders physically participating and contributing. Extensive analysis reports were then produced which helped both formulate and construct this SRIA. A compilation of the workshop results is provided as an integrated SWOT analysis for the European market in Appendix 6.4.