Brian Wixted

Research Domain 1:

Science and Innovation Systems Governance (Measurement, Performance and Policy)

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How do we measure and what do we measure when we are interested in the science, technology and innovative effort of economies? Further, how do we understand the concept of ‘value’ as it is applied to research? I have worked on projects for the Australian, Canadian, Mozambican, and New South Wales Governments on measuring science, technology and innovation systems.

My early work in this area of interest was during the first half of the 1990s working on ‘indicator’ publications for the Australian government. This provided a great training in the technicalities of research and development and other statistical office data collections. Another of my key interests, the flows of knowledge also commenced during my time with the Australian Government. When faced with the task of analysing and developing policies for agricultural and resource based industries, it becomes rapidly apparent that traditional data collections provide an inadequate knowledge base.

My research outputs in this domain include:

Developing ideas on innovation system measurement

Ø Sectoral. As part of a team (Marceau, J., Wixted, B. and Basri, E. 2001) I worked on a report on the processed food innovation system in Australia. A summary of the research was printed here. http://www.abare.gov.au/publications_html/regional/regional_02/foodstats02.pdf

Ø Regional. Amongst a number of other projects, of particular note here is the report Prof Jane Marceau and I prepared (2001) for the New South Wales Government on that State’s innovation system. A version of the work was later presented at a conference and can be downloaded here:

Ø National. Early in my career I worked on preparing indicator reports for the Australian government, but I have also worked on mapping the innovation system of a developing country (with Sam Garret Jones and Tim Turpin, 2003) we reported on the funding of R&D in Mozambique.

A copy of the final version which was based on our work is available in Portuguese here: https://www.portaldogoverno.gov.mz/Informacao/ciencia_e_tecnologia/indcadores_c_t_moc.pdf

Ø A project on classifying internal government research and development for Industry Canada. http://www.sfu.ca/cprost/docs/Holbrook_wixted_FINAL_rev31.pdf

Ø Knowledge Ecologies. Lately I have been working on developing a paper that is close to my long term interest on how to map the knowledge interactions in ‘innovation systems’. That is – what are the flows of codified, tacit, embodied and embrained knowledge between universities, government laboratories, all business sectors (primary, secondary and tertiary) and the community in general (ie society and non-profit sector). You can download a paper on this topic at:

Ø http://www.sfu.ca/cprost/docs/Knowledge_ecologies-CPROST-GATECH.pdf

Ø Flowing from our work on research networks (see below) it is obvious that charities have been largely ignored in the research landscape of modern economies. Watch a video interview of me on this topic that was made at the recent Canadian Science Policy Conference (2009) http://www.themarknews.com/videos/458 . We hope to do more on this line of work in the new year.

Measuring and evaluating the performance (ie value) of research systems

Ø Australian Government (the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (2001).

Ø The National Health and Medical Research Council (2003).

Ø New Zealand Government: with colleagues I was involved in a strategic review of the New Zealand Health Research Council. http://www.morst.govt.nz/publications/evaluations/health-research-evaluation/

Reviewed by a member of the group Health Researchers of New Zealand. http://www.heronz.org.nz/downloads/richards-eval-sc4life-aug04.pdf

Ø British Columbia Provincial Government. What is the value of research experience for post-graduate students? Is this a meaningful approach to conceptualising the value of research and more particularly the largest output of university systems – graduates? A copy of the report is available here: http://www.sfu.ca/cprost/docs/AVED%20draft%20report%20-%20v6e.pdf

Ø Work for the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and the Health of Population Networks see the report on the workshop http://www.sfu.ca/cprost/events.html

Ø Networks. A more recent line of research is how to evaluate (from a funding council perspective) the ‘network’ aspects of formal research networks. This work draws upon my interest in both the evaluation of science funding and my interest in the nature of interdependencies – a theme which is central to most of my research and core to all my research domains. A background paper is available here: http://www.sfu.ca/cprost/docs/wixtedholbrook08-1.pdf Professor Brian Lewis, Adam Holbrook and I have a research grant from SSHRC to investigate the measurement of the impact of research networks.

Ø Interviewed by the Disability Health Research Network on evaluating networks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MEK-B2FcOw

Work on the policy implications of innovation systems

Ø 10 years experience with the Australian Federal Government on science and technology policy plus policy relevance is a focus of much of my work is this domain of measuring systems and evaluating performance.

Ø Wixted, B., Marceau, J., Davison, K. and Bjorkli, M. (2003) Government Support for Innovation: An International Comparison of Programs in Australia and Nine OECD Countries, a report to the Australian Commonwealth Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources: Canberra.

Ø Presentation at the Canadian Science Policy Conference in Toronto 2009. Presentation available here : http://www.sfu.ca/~bwa11/CSPC2009-wixted.pdf

Listen to the audio of the session Best practices in science policy from other nations. http://sciencepolicy.ca/coverage?quicktabs_3=4#quicktabs-3 (just scroll down the page a little way).

Interviewed at the Canadian Science Policy Conference regarding the role of non-profits and charities in the research system. http://sciencepolicy.ca/sites/all/interviews/458.htm

Research Grants

Ø SSHRC Presidential Grant with Brian Lewis and Adam Holbrook to investigate the evaluation of research networks.

Teaching and workshops

I am available to present at workshops on the value of research.

With Sam Garrett Jones and Tim Turpin I was involved in a training program for experts from Mozambique (202) and with Adam Holbrook I have recently run workshops for the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (2007) the BC Ministry of Advanced Education (2007) and SSHRC (2008).

Interesting Links

Ø Centre for Industry and Innovation Studies (A new name for my previous research centre AEGIS) at the University of Western Sydney http://www.uws.edu.au/cinis/industry_and_innovation_studies