Increasing Effectiveness

The past half-century has witnessed a dramatic increase in the scale and complexity of scientific research. The growing scale of science has been accompanied by a shift toward collaborative research, referred to as "team science." Scientific research is increasingly conducted by small teams and larger groups rather than individual investigators, but the challenges of collaboration can slow these teams' progress in achieving their scientific goals. How does a team-based approach work, and how can universities and research institutions support teams? Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science synthesizes and integrates the available research to provide guidance on assembling the science team; leadership, education and professional development for science teams and groups. It also examines institutional and organizational structures and policies to support science teams and identifies areas where further research is needed to help science teams and groups achieve their scientific and translational goals. This report offers major public policy recommendations for science research agencies and policymakers, as well as recommendations for individual scientists, disciplinary associations, and research universities. Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science will be of interest to university research administrators, team science leaders, science faculty, and graduate and postdoctoral students.

"This book is a landmark in two fields. It is a practical guide tothe reform of professional education. It is also a beacon totheoretical thinking about human organizations, about theirinterdepAndence with the social structure of the professions, andabout theory in practice." -- Journal of Higher Education

A five-foot-diameter, spherical, thin-walled, steel shell, simulating a nuclear reactor outer containment vessel, was lined with three different shock absorbing materials and subjected to internal blast loading from Pentolite explosive charges. Strain-time histories of shell response were measured with strain gages on the shell's outer surface. Peak strains generated in the lined shells were approximately one-half those recorded with the same shell when unlined. The results suggest the feasibility of increasing the blast resistance of outer containment vessels of nuclear reactors through the use of a suitable lining material. (Author).

The tasks confronting European governments intent on innovation will need to shift from simple quantitative measures of how much (R&D, etc.) to how good such magnitudes are in augmenting competitiveness from quantity to quality. In this book, the editors and their contributors move the debate on to concerns over the effectiveness of innovation. This is not just a matter of making linkages among increasingly diverse players, but of making these linkages themselves effective. The book takes an important step forward for innovation policy at all levels, from regional to global. Nick von Tunzelmann, University of Sussex, UK The limits of established innovation processes have become clear as nations increasingly champion innovation as a tool of the ever-important knowledge economy . This timely book analyses the effectiveness of innovation efforts, presenting challenges to the traditional approaches whilst developing more contemporary theories. Focusing on the interplay between three key players knowledge organisations, firms and the public sector this insightful volume will be invaluable to a wide-ranging audience including researchers, practitioners and students of science and technology, business and management, public policy and European studies.