This paper looks at eight comparative case-studies on academic entrepreneurs in life sciences conducted in Europe in 2008. The interviewees were selected from the KEINS database that lists all academic inventors from Italy, France, Sweden and the Netherlands who have one or more patent applications registered at the European Patent Office,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to plan a relevant, professional development conference for the faculty of a small, private, suburban college in upstate, New York. The Provost and Senior Vice-President led a college-wide committee of faculty, administrators, and staff in a survey method to discover the priorities of the faculty, in further…

Scientific freedom and openness are hallmarks of academia: relative to their counterparts in industry, academics maintain discretion over their research agenda and allow others to build on their discoveries. This paper examines the relationship between openness and freedom, building on recent models emphasizing that, from an economic perspective,…

We introduce international mobility of knowledge workers into a model of Nash equilibrium IPR policy choice among countries. We show that governments have incentives to use IPRs in a bidding war for global talent, resulting in Nash equilibrium IPRs that can be too high, rather than too low, from a global welfare perspective. These incentives…

In the past several years various published papers have questioned whether the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 (The University and Small Business Patent Procedures Act) has in reality been a determining factor in promoting the transfer of technology from US universities, as has been credited to it. This paper responds to that criticism, presenting facts and…

Education is a technology, a production system whose elements comprise material, linguistic and conceptual inventions. This multi-dimensional sense of educational technology is useful whenever attempts are made to understand educational practice. To this end, my paper examines a small corner of the historical or technological record, "patents…

The present study is based on interviews of students (n = 48) and instructors (n = 27) from various disciplines in a North American research university and explores participants' comments on examples of some students' unacknowledged texts appropriated and drawn from published sources, classroom learning, or unidentified prior reading. Although…

This study introduces the concept and characteristics of open access (OA), analyses the status quo and development of OA in foreign countries, and discusses its inspiration to its future development in China.

In June 2010, the Association of American Medical Colleges issued the third and final portion of its conflict-of-interest policy initiatives. The task force on "Conflicts of Interest in Clinical Care" did not mince words when it described the impetus for these initiatives: "It is imperative that the possibility or perception of [financial conflict…

In its broadest sense, open content refers to material published under a license that allows any user to edit, adapt, remix, and distribute it. It is distinct from free content, which is in the public domain and has no significant legal restrictions on its modification. In a much-publicized action in January 2008, Florida became the first state to…

Modern engineering curricula have started to emphasize design, mostly in the form of design-build experiences. Apart from instilling important problem-solving skills, such pedagogical frameworks address the critical social skill aspects of engineering education due to their team-based, project-based nature. However, it is required of the…

Creativity, invention, and innovation are values championed as central pillars of engineering education. However, university environments that foster open-ended design-build projects are uncommon. Fabrication and prototyping spaces at universities are typically "machine shops" where students relinquish actual fabrication activities to…

As a result of turbulent conditions, institutions are changing the way they operate. Research that illustrates the growing importance of activities on the edges of institutions is an important part of portraying entrepreneurship accurately; the growth of areas like intellectual property, applied research, fundraising, and increased university…

For almost two decades, there has been growing interest in what design-based research (DBR) can contribute to both educational practice and theory. Since its introduction into the literature, this orientation to educational research has repeatedly been likened to aeronautical engineering as a way to clarify its nature and argue its potential. This…

Oftentimes, copyright is addressed in the workplace only after a blatant infringement is discovered or a cease-and-desist letter is received. Then, too, some workplaces may feel that they are immune to copyright issues due to their educational nature; while private organizations, businesses, and industry may feel that the term "fair use" will…