On the economic impact of university proof of concept centers

Enhancing translational medical research through proof-of-concept services: clinicians' perspectives

Although the proof-of-concept (POC) phase is critical for the success of translational medical research (TMR), its use remains limited, and clinicians are frequently uncertain about how to seek assistance from POC teams when experiencing difficulties with TMR. Therefore, this study explored clinicians' awareness of POC and the supportive reference services offered by POC teams. We distributed an internet-based questionnaire to 702 clinicians who conducted TMR between August 2022 and March 2023. Descriptive statistics, chi-square test, Wilcoxon rank sum test, Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test, and stepwise logistic regression analysis were applied. Clinicians' awareness of POC was low (69.23%). However, young clinicians (aged 21-30 years) with a higher educational level than their colleagues, good understanding of POC, reliance on the hospital's TMR policy and serviceability, and need or great need for services to identify suitable technology, literature, and intelligence services were likely to choose 'agree' over 'disagree' regarding the ability for POC services to help solve difficulties with TMR. Favourable conditions should be created to encourage clinicians to fully use POC services, and clinicians should actively acquire POC knowledge to enhance their understanding of the value of POC services in TMR. Notably, promoting the establishment of POC centres or platforms at the national level would facilitate the use of POC services by clinicians conducting TMR.

Teaching science and technology PhD students in entrepreneurship-potential learning opportunities and outcomes

Whilst doctoral students comprise a large group of researchers at a university and will potentially play important roles in the utilization and transfer of research results, prior research studies have paid little attention to the effect of entrepreneurship education on PhD students with a science and technology orientation. This paper seeks to address this gap in knowledge and examines four key elements in the design and evolution of good practice in entrepreneurship education for this group of students: (1) learning tools, (2) inspiration, (3) interdisciplinarity, and (4) boundary spanning networks. The paper illustrates the importance of identifying the balance between theory and practice that will attract students from across the spectrum of science and technology fields. It also shows that a hands-on experimental methodology is an effective pedagogical strategy that uses learning by doing as an essential tool in problem solving.

Research on science and technological entrepreneurship education: What needs to happen next?

This paper discusses the challenges of technological entrepreneurship education in the current education system and the questions that need to be answered to improve the efficacy and efficiency of technological entrepreneurship education. The nature of technological entrepreneurship requires a diversified set of skills for success; however, the traditional education system focuses on single discipline. Consequently, it is difficult for either engineers and scientists who are lacking managerial skills or management students who are lacking of engineer or science oriented knowledge to be successful. A further concern is that different communities have entirely different perceptions of how entrepreneurship is defined often causing both confusion and disagreement in communications between researchers and educators with each other. The paper considers the existing literature and develops a series of comprehensive questions that still need to be addressed. By answering these questions, the traditional education methods can be transformed to be more appropriate and useful for technological entrepreneurship education.

Stimulating niche nurturing process for heat production with nuclear plants in France: A multi-level perspective

This paper examines how intermediaries could interact with other important actors identified by the multi-level perspective (MLP) framework, the niche actors and regime actors, to create niches for nuclear heat production in France. Whatever is the source, recovering the wasted heat is a matter of energy efficiency. Nuclear plants could remain used for several decades in France. It is thus legitimate to investigate those possible niche nurturing processes which may allow a more efficient use of this technology. Challenges are high, and our conclusions modest regarding the possible breaking through of such exploratory and collective systems. Without significant windows of opportunity, even the most willing intermediation may not be able to change the status quo. It is however important to highlight the multifarious pathways that energy transitions could follow. Drawing on lessons from the MLP, this paper proposes three key actions for intermediation willing to move beyond technology-push approaches that can lead to tension and low legitimacy. These are, sharing questions instead of knowledge; mobilise, interest, involve a legitimate place; and prevent or avoid conflicts among stakeholders. Regime changes possibly enhancing the deployment of sustainable heating systems, not only nuclear plant sourced, are also discussed.