Journal of the National Research University Higher School of Economics

The new issue of the Foresight and STI Governance journal (2018. vol. 12. No. 1) highlights various aspects of innovation development and relevant regional, sectoral, and network strategies.

Foresight studies provide essential information for technology planning and knowledge expansion. Elizabeth Gibson, Tugrul Daim, Edwin Garces, and Marina Dabic in the paper “Technology Foresight: A Bibliometric Analysis to Identify Leading and Emerging Methods” suggest an efficient approach which allows to optimise Foresight projects by flexibly selecting the most appropriate techniques.

In a number of countries, regions apply the smart specialisation concept to set priorities for their innovation development, which makes them eligible for subsidies. The paper “Smart by Oneself? An Analysis of Russian Regional Innovation Strategies within the RIS3 Framework” by Evgeny Kutsenko, Ekaterina Islankina, and Alexey Kindras analyses innovation strategies of seven Russian regions. The authors conclude that the strategies do formally meet most of the smart specialisation criteria, and note the factors which hinder development and implementation of such programmes.

Additive production technologies are changing the situation in many sectors. Marisela Rodríguez-Salvador and Leonardo Azael Garcia-Garcia in their paper “Additive Manufacturing in Healthcare” assess the extent of such technologies’ availability in healthcare, describe the main application areas, and more popular materials. The authors note the highly dynamic nature of relevant processes.

The paper “Modelling the Factors that Affect the Implementation of Knowledge Networks” is focused on the aspects which affect networking productivity as the basis of knowledge management. With the help of interpretative structural modelling techniques, Ali Rezaeian and Rouhollah Bagheri analyse this process and suggest an efficient model describing the hierarchy of various factors. Application of the above methodology helps to better understand links between relevant variables, and set management priorities to balance them in the best possible way.

Dmitry Devyatkin, Elena Nechaeva, Roman Suvorov, and, Ilya Tikhomirov suggest an original methodology for mapping scientific landscapes. Their paper “Mapping the Research Landscape of Agricultural Sciences” presents a toolset for identifying key research areas based on collecting data from reliable sources, and using it to build a thematic model. Major research areas in the relevant field were actually identified. The methodology can be also applied in other disciplines.

Relevance of university curricula and programmes to the actual needs of the society is examined in the paper “The Knowledge Triangle in the Healthcare Sector — The Case of Three Medical Faculties in Norway”. On the basis of a specialised survey results the authors, Siri Brorstad Borlaug and Siri Aanstad, analyse universities’ partnerships with private firms and public healthcare organisations in the medical sector. In Norway this partnership defines development vectors for higher education institutions’ medical faculties. The paper presents new trends, and new forms of cooperation in this domain.

In the paper “Hearing the Sound of the Wave: What Impedes One’s Ability to Foresee Innovations?” Vladimir Milovidov describes various barriers hindering perception of emerging innovations and their effects. Such factors include hidden, barely detectable events and phenomena, weak signals, lack of relevant skills and data processing tools, and cognitive biases. Several recommendations are suggested to minimise such barriers, and increase efficiency of the process.

You can buy the latest issue of the Foresight and STI Governance journal in Moscow at the HSE’s own shop BookVyshka (20 Myasnitskaya St.), or subscribe to the paper edition. The electronic version is freely available at the journal’s website, online libraries e-Library and Cyberleninka, and through mobile applications available at AppStore and GooglePlay.