Discourses matter. They help to shape institutions and policies. A new discourse has emerged in recent EU innovation policy centred on the idea of a knowledge-based bio-economy (KBBE). It is officially defined as ‘the sustainable, eco-efficient transformation of renewable biological resources...

Between 1970 and 2000 the proportion of global R&D occurring in low income economies rose from two percent to more than 20 percent. However, this rising commitment to R&D does not easily translate into the emergence of a family of innovations meeting the needs of low income consumers "at the...

Today, bioscientific research and commercialization are considered to be critical for improving a number of areas of social and economic life. Especially in the sector of human healthcare, the recent developments in new life sciences and biotechnology appear to constitute the main driving force...

Biobanks as collections of population level genetic and health data will be central to the innovation of new drugs and drug targets. The UK Biobank, funded by massive public and charitable investment, was created to store and manage the genetic and health data of over 500,000 people in the UK....

Innovation is crucial for development. Addressing twenty-first century developmental challenges requires innovative processes and products, which help in reducing and/or eliminating the gap between rich and poor in the society. Such innovations can meet basic needs of low- and middle-income...

The importance of innovation in human development is undeniable. Since the 1780s, successive scientific and technological revolutions have introduced new products and services with tremendous impact on well-being and general welfare. Yet innovation has not been available to all individuals and...

One of the new forces likely to influence the future of global change and re-shape development agendas is the growing theory and practice of global justice. The latter is founded upon the moral and political claim that, in today's globalising world, our duties and obligations to other persons...

Recent academic and policy debate on innovation indicates that there has been some shift from a more traditional systems approach to ecologies and ecosystems. The latter are concepts transferred from the world of biology to the social world in order to explain the evolutionary nature of...

Controversy over EU-wide biofuel policy resonated within the UK, fuelling policy disagreements among UK public authorities. They disagreed over how to protect a space for future second-generation biofuels, which were expected to overcome harm from first-generation biofuels. The UK government...