Good public policies are central to well-functioning economies. Better policies on innovation, combined with high-quality regulations and a more efficient public administration, can help Colombia create jobs, boost economic growth and support development, according to three new OECD reports.

Conference to exchange information on the need for and experience with governance innovation in the context of different sectors and different countries, both within and outside of the OECD, and to inform future OECD work.

Forum promoting policy exchange on the increasing strategic approach of Innovation Procurement. This forum provided a space for policy makers and leaders in public procurement to share knowledge and good practices in transforming procurement into a strategic function.

OECD countries must ensure mobile markets remain open and competitive in order to sustain innovation and meet rising demand for data services, according to a new OECD report.

This report explores the association between school innovation and different measures related to educational objectives. This book is the beginning of a new journey: it calls for innovations in the field of measurement – and not just of education.

The end of the mining boom has highlighted the urgent need for Chile to diversify its economy away from commodity-intensive sectors, according to a new OECD report presented by Secretary-General Angel Gurría today.

Education has become increasingly important worldwide, including politically. Probably the key driver for this is economic – the fundamental role of knowledge and skills in underpinning and maintaining prosperity.

Today, around 5 million students study and do research in a country other than their own, attracted by the quality of overseas universities and willing to complement their education portfolio with international experience.

26 Ministers and State Secretaries representing 15 countries and the European Commission gathered in Bergen, Norway, for the first Skills Summit on 29-30 June 2016. The Summit, hosted by Norway, was opened by Prime Minister Erna Solberg and the OECD’s Secretary General, Angel Gurría.

Students unable to navigate through our complex digital landscape are simply no longer able to participate in our social, economic and cultural life.

Innovative schools challenge the boundaries – in time, space, and also in curricula and learning processes – that tradition seems to impose on schools today. They often have different approaches to the learning process and especially how its pedagogical core is organised.

Since Harvard economists Goldin & Katz published their ground-breaking book The Race between Technology and Education (2008), education has come face-to-face with the challenges of a world continuously altered by technological innovation. Education is generally perceived to be a laggard social system, better equipped to transmit the heritage of the past than to prepare for the future.

This book examines regional innovation in central and southern Denmark, looking at its role in the economy, its governance and policy context and regional strategies for innovation driven growth.

Russia: Innovation and Modernising the Rural Economy

The conference discussed the results of the project as well as policy recommendations on training and skills development for the creation of an innovative and competitive SME sector in OECD countries.

This publication looks at regional innovation in Wallonia, Belgium, by examining the political context, governance issues and the role of innovation in the economy, along with regional innovation strategies to promote growth.

This report examines cross-border collaboration on innovation, building on case studies of cross-border areas that include the following countries: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom and Ireland.

The Netherlands is gradually emerging from a double-dip recession with strengthened public finances and reforms on track to improve the labour and housing markets and the health care and pension systems. These reforms are paying off, says the OECD. Growth is expected to reach 1% this year and 1.3% in 2015.

The project provided recommendations to the city of Medellin and Antioquia to support the development of the local economy and includes a focus on how the innovative environment can be strengthened to support inclusion, entrepreneurship, SME, and local developmentto and how to better coordinate and integrate its policies with the national level.

“What is the city but the people?” asked Shakespeare in Coriolanus. All city planning focuses on people and the quality of life. The big cities in Brazil took shape from the 1950s, when the country’s population amounted to approximately 52 million inhabitants, only 36.2% of whom lived in cities.

Seminar on Innovations and challenges in the management of a regional policy held in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, 22 February 2017

Despite lack of support from policy-makers, potato farmers continue to deploy indigenously developed production and storage techniques, says Virendar Khatana.

From biogas to solar cookers and improved cookstoves, from agricultural tools to drudgery reducing technologies, most research and development in appropriate technologies has not been backed-up by appropriate market incentives. In contrast, hi-tech is totally market driven, says Sudhirendar Sharma.

The inability of India to adequately provide for its own population no longer reflects a failure of implementation, but rather of a failure of innovation, writes Aditya Dev Sood.

Are synchrotrons needed for innovation in industry? What can scientists at large-scale facilities offer for R&D in industry? Is the comfort of life profiting from research?

The funding will allow the National Science Resources Center to validate its LASER (Leadership Assistance for Science Education Reform) Model. LASER, a systemic approach to reform, is a set of processes and strategies designed to help state, district and school leadership teams effectively implement and sustain
high-quality science education for elementary, middle and secondary school students.

The post NSRC to receive $25 million Investing in Innovation grant from U.S. Department of Education appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The next time you swat a fly ponder this: inside its belly is the DNA of whatever it ate before landing on your picnic dinner—roadkill, […]

The post Innovation: Belly gunk from flies used to survey forest animals appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

National Air and Space Museum Curator John Anderson describes major flight innovations made possible by the Full Scale Tunnel, built in 1931 at the National […]

The post Giant wind tunnel sped aircraft innovation appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

At age 19, athlete Amy Purdy had both legs amputated below the knee due to a sudden illness that culminated in septic shock. Two years […]

The post With Grit and Innovation “Everyone Plays” appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine urges Congress, federal and state agencies, and regulatory institutions to significantly increase their support for innovation for what the report’s study committee calls “increasingly clean” electric power technologies – nuclear power, carbon capture and storage, and renewables such as solar and wind. Some of these technologies have seen recent cost and price declines and are cost-competitive in certain locations.

The U.S. Agency for International Development should speed its transformation into a global leader and catalyst in applying science, technology and innovation to the challenges facing developing countries, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (NAKFI) is pleased to announce the publication of Collaborations of Consequence - NAKFI’s 15 Years of Igniting Innovation at the Intersections of Disciplines.

The nation’s highways and roads connect almost 330 million Americans and are important to both commerce and national security. Two-thirds of total passenger travel in the country moves along this vast network of roads, as does 60 percent of the weight and almost three-quarters of the value of total U.S. freight transported.

Rev. Heber Brown III wants people to erase the term “food desert” from their vocabulary.

From N-95 masks that are protecting health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic to food packaging found in every aisle of the grocery store, plastics play an essential role in our lives.

The factors enabling eco-innovation have been analysed across 19 European countries in a new study. Regulations and environmental subsidies were found to be more important factors in Eastern Europe than in wealthier Western European countries. External research and development (R&D) was also more relevant in Eastern Europe, demonstrating the need for specific technology transfers from other countries and competitors.

Eco-innovations which help prevent the production of waste are explored in a recent German study. It considers the drivers and barriers to the uptake of material efficiency measures in businesses, green procurement and product leasing schemes.

A participatory approach to waste management has been tested in Naples, Italy, a city which has experienced ongoing problems with the collection of municipal waste. This study tested a toolkit, which uses stakeholder engagement to improve waste-management decision-making. Residents and other stakeholders supported the use of a technological innovation to develop biomass fuel from municipal waste.

The growing demand for power generated from renewable energy sources also drives innovation in the sector, according to research on the German renewables industry. An increase in the number of patents granted for green technologies in Germany was linked to both increased demand – driven by renewable energy policies – and increased public spending on the sector.

‘Climate-smart agriculture’ aims to sustainably increase agricultural production and increase resilience to climate change. One aspect focuses on climate-smart technologies. This study interviewed users and producers of these technologies, highlighting barriers to adoption and possible means of overcoming them, including increasing awareness, user-focused design and changes to policy.

A team of Italian scientists has published a study highlighting the important role of intersectoral linkages and eco-innovations in shaping industry’s environmental performance (a measure of its ability to meet environmental targets and objectives) across Europe. The research indicates that eco-innovation can produce positive effects, both directly (in the sector where it is developed) and indirectly (in linked sectors at home and abroad). These insights are relevant to corporate and policy governance strategies aimed at maximising the environmental and economic potential of novel green technologies.

In addition to reducing carbon emissions, policies promoting efficient energy use can encourage innovation in the manufacturing sector. This study evaluated the innovation effect of household energy policies using a comprehensive dataset of 21 European countries. The results show that policies such as financial subsidies and product labels can promote the development of sustainable-energy technologies.

Carbon emissions from Dutch road networks could be reduced by almost a third if more innovative materials and processes were used, a new study suggests. Researchers assessed the potential benefits associated with 10 innovations in road construction and maintenance, and compared them to conventional materials and processes.

A recent analysis of the barriers to eco-innovation has indicated that uncertainty about future market demand for innovation holds back commercialisation of eco-innovations. Policy could solve this problem cost-effectively by helping communicate future market needs to innovators, which could bring together public and private purchasers to indicate future demand.

Environmental policies must provide the right incentives for the development of innovative technologies that reduce pollution and mitigate the effects of climate change. A recent study has investigated the characteristics of policies that are likely to encourage green innovation and concluded that those that are stringent, predictable and flexible are the most effective.

The contribution of technical innovation to sustainable development requires integrated, long-term policy to unlock industry from previous business models and practices, according to a new analysis. The researchers suggest adopting a multi-purpose policy practice that integrates industrial policy, environmental policy and trade initiatives.

Effective risk governance is important when developing new technologies. This study assessed the approaches to governance of nanotechnology in Europe, based on a comprehensive review of literature and practices, complemented by discussions with key stakeholders. The study provides a new analytical framework for exploring the strengths and weaknesses of governance strategies and makes recommendations specific to nanotechnology.

The effects of market regulation and environmental policy on eight types of renewable energy in the EU are identified in a study which examines nearly three decades’ worth of data. The researchers found that reducing entry barriers is a major driver of renewable energy innovation and that the ability of environmental policy to promote renewable energy innovation depends on the technology; for example, quota systems appear to work better with older technologies.

How do we safeguard both water quality and quantity? This brief looks at the best ways to recycle and re-use water, the latest water treatment technologies, and innovation within water governance itself.