This paper sets out an analytical framework for doing research on the question of how to use agricultural research for innovation and impact. Its focus is the Research Into Use programme sponsored by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID). This is one example of a new type of...

Over the last 10 years much has been written about the role of the private sector as part of a more widely-conceived notion of agricultural sector capacity for innovation and development. This paper discusses the emergence of a new class of private enterprise in East Africa that would seem to...

The recognition that innovation occurs in networks of heterogeneous actors and requires broad systemic support beyond knowledge brokering has resulted in a changing landscape of the intermediary domain in an increasingly market-driven agricultural sector in developing countries. This paper...

This paper looks at the role of firms in the transformation of fossil fuel based energy systems towards cleaner and greener energy systems. Firms are playing an important role in determining the speed and direction of technical change towards such energy systems. But systemic constraints and...

UK climate change policy has long been concerned with the transition to a more sustainable energy mix. The degree of competition in electricity markets rises as these markets become more and more liberalized. In order to survive in such an increasingly competitive setting, electricity producers...

This paper was prepared to present at the Farmer First Revisited: 20 Years On conference at IDS, University of Sussex, UK, December 2007. Its focus is the challenge of strengthening agricultural innovation systems. The paper prefaces this discussion by reflecting on an apparent paradox. While...

The emergence of a globalised knowledge economy, and the contemporary views of innovation capacity that this trend enables and informs, provides a new context in which development assistance to agricultural research and development needs to be considered. The main argument in this paper, which...

Recent and rampant regulatory changes for sustainable development are seeking to transform current energy systems towards cleaner and greener forms of energy sources. In this scenario, alternative energy technologies are considered the building blocks towards this transformed energy system. This...

There are divergent views on what capacity development might mean in relation to agricultural biotechnology. The core of this debate is whether this should involve the development of human capital and research infrastructure, or whether it should encompass a wider range of activities which also...

This paper examines the extent to which dependence on primary commodities in Sub-Saharan African(SSA) countries can be explained by low levels of absorptive capacity (the ability to acquire, internalize and utilize knowledge developed elsewhere). We examine the individual and combined effects of...