Early detection of cancers is a major challenge in India due to the limited availability and access to early detection modalities in low-resource healthcare settings. Recent artificial intelligence (AI)-driven point-of-care (PoC) medical technology (MedTech) innovations for early detection have shown some signs of bridging this gap. This article has two objectives: first, to contextualize these innovations into the broader health-industrial construct of early detection modalities for cancer in India. For this, we use our novel Inclusive Health Innovation framework to frame adaptation of the scarcity-induced innovation matrix by Srinivas and Sutz. Second, it conceptualizes inclusivity in the context of these PoC MedTechs, exploring its implications for cancer detection in India. Using three case studies of PoC MedTechs for oral, breast, and cervical cancer, and data from online semi-structured interviews, this article provides critical insights into inclusiveness in the development process and outcomes of these innovations in low-resource healthcare settings.

This paper investigates why it is so hard for engineering-based inclusive innovation (EII) to fit in mainstream scaling frameworks. Can new transdisciplinary design approaches build trajectories that are more inclusive and environmentally sustainable? There are a range of constraints on EII. These include the poverty of those who might benefit most, but also institutional barriers to the inclusion of some actors with knowledge and experience of scaling innovations towards the mainstream. This paper presents a review of the extant literature on conceptual understanding of scaling EIIs and a set of case studies of attempts to scale and mainstream innovations. We have gathered data from and analysed scaling-up case studies from different sectors and geographies. The paper advocates for the advantages of evolutionary approaches to development engineering that take account of institutional variety to bridge gaps in static, neo-classical and one-size-fits-all approaches of conventional frameworks for scaling. We propose the EII Scaling (EIIS) framework, incorporating an evolutionary, transdisciplinary approach to innovation that enables engagement with the complexities and challenges of scaling and delivering EII. We also illustrate that the engineering innovations not replicated on a large scale have not necessarily failed, as one size fits all does not apply to the scaling up of EIIs.

Global shortages of critical equipment and supplies induced by COVID-19 forced countries to rapidly build and ramp up their indigenous testing and production capacities. However, the many ways in which institutional and organizational change occurred has not been sufficiently captured. Building domestic capacity requires the leveraging and repurposing of existing domestic scientific and technological capabilities, coupled with intensified global outreach to new and existing partners and suppliers. Using the framework of institutional variety, this paper looks at two facets of the UK's COVID emergency industrial response: (1) building its laboratory testing capabilities and (2) for increasing production of personal protective equipment; assessing the institutional capacities and relations that were leveraged in this regard. It uses these findings together with observations of 'innovation processes under emergency conditions' and the potential uses of a 'critical equipment policy' to sharpen some of the recommendations made in the UK's post-COVID Research and Development Roadmap.

Given their obvious need, why is it so hard for new pro-poor, engineering-based inclusive innovation (EII) to become more mainstream? Can new trajectories emerge that are more inclusive and environmentally sustainable? Those interested in these questions have studied the role of science and engineering in development but have faced a range of constraints. These include the poverty of those who might benefit most but also institutional barriers to the inclusion of some actors with knowledge and experience of scaling innovations towards the mainstream. This paper presents new theories and a set of case studies of attempts to scale and mainstream innovations. We have gathered data from and analysed scaling up case studies from different sectors and geographies. The paper advocates for the advantages of evolutionary approaches to development engineering that take account of institutional variety over static, neo-classical and one-size-fits-all approaches. We show that one size fits all does not apply to scaling up for engineering-based inclusive innovations. We illustrate that engineering innovations not replicated on a large scale have not necessarily failed. We conclude by arguing that it is possible to go beyond market failure approaches towards a more agile framework for the delivery of innovations and suggest that our results resonate with broader changes in the greening of the global economy.

Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) research has contributed to better understanding of that policy framework’s conceptual underpinnings but some European regions still find it difficult to turn S3 theory into policy implementation. A key element of the implementation challenge concerns the enabling or constraining role of local institutions on regional development strategies and, more specifically, the entrepreneurial discovery process (EDP). Such a challenge appears to be particularly acute (and empirically unexplored) in lagging regions, characterised by weaker knowledge bases and innovation capacities. It is often in less advanced settings where weaker institutions are found. This paper addresses these gaps by investigating S3 implementation in lagging regions focusing on the dynamic interdependence between the regional institutional environment and EDP. It evidences how particular features of the regional institutional environment hinder EDP, as well as how institutional change could enable S3 implementation in two Greek regions. Our results reveal mutual interdependence between inadequate institutions and weak administrative and entrepreneurial capacities, creating adverse pre-conditions for S3 implementation. They also suggest that change requires the replacement of existing features of the institutional environment or creation of new ones, rather than gradual institutional adaptation or transformation.

This chapter describes the issue of unemployment and ways of making a living. Rather than simply being characterized by unemployment, in less developed areas work is often characterized by its complexity and diversity. The level of complexity is arguably increasing as all around the world there has been an increase in the diversity of ways of making a living, with more part-time wage work, more self-employed, and informal activities, and more flexible work systems. Often, rather than people being unemployed, a major issue is that many work extremely hard but at levels of low productivity, receiving low financial recompense, and thus remaining in relative poverty. They require opportunities for better quality and better remunerated work. Understanding of policy issues is improved by applying the concepts of commodity and subsistence production, reproduction, and waged and unwaged work, as well as an appreciation of how ways of making a living combine these types of work.

This chapter focuses on the concept of engineering for development (E4D), which falls within the idea of development as deliberate intervention. Some such interventions may contain large-scale infrastructure engineering to meet human needs and/or facilitate economic development, while others are at small scale to meet primarily everyday human needs. Public finance and/or aid usually plays a large part in these interventions, although implementation is likely to include NGOs or the private sector. By following and analysing what engineers do, it becomes clear how E4D is socially produced beyond its strictly technical dimensions. Case studies of E4D suggest that the key concepts for analysing its social production are: ecological modernization, networks, bricolage, and reflexivity. Key issues for infrastructure development are access and effective coordination of implementation networks through cooperative partnerships and/or contracts.

There is potentially tension between world class research and global standards on the one hand and local contexts of engineering and development practice on the other. One aims at scientific status and entirely new knowledge, suggesting just one standard of quality. The other at building products and processes that might bring socio‐economic development, often prizing pragmatism and bricolage. The UK‐funded programme ‘Understanding Sustainable Energy Solutions in Developing Countries’ (USES) was set up on the understanding that such tensions, if they exist, can be transcended. It was funded by two organisations, the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the UK international development agency, Department for International Development. This paper analyses the USES research programme, looking at the processes of its establishment, partnership building, the research undertaken and its early impact. The paper shows that the USES programme goes beyond ‘normal’ pure versus applied, research versus policy and low‐tech versus high‐tech dualities. Instead, it throws up a complex series of issues that require attention if research is to lead to long standing and sustainable economic and social development. The paper suggests that the concept ‘liquid engineering’ might be a good way to conceptualise the ways in which the programme, without denying the tensions of dualistic realities, has moved towards a more fluid process to take account of its multiple and complex goals. The programme highlights that progress can be made towards engineering and development being accepted as a legitimate area of engineering theory and practice. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Journal of International DevelopmentVolume 32, Issue 1 p. 3-4 Special Issue Article Ben Crow 1947–2019 David Wield, Corresponding Author David Wield david.wield@open.ac.uk Search for more papers by this author David Wield, Corresponding Author David Wield david.wield@open.ac.uk Search for more papers by this author First published: 10 January 2020 https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.3446Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume32, Issue1Special Issue: Special Issue and Policy Arena: The Global and the Local in Engineering and International DevelopmentJanuary 2020Pages 3-4 RelatedInformation

This special issue on the global and the local in engineering and development builds on an earlier JID Policy Arena on reflexive engineering. It extends our thinking by elaborating the notion of ‘liquid engineering’, which sees engineering and development as messy and improvisational, a borderland hybrid space, composed of objects and practices, and as reflexive and evolutionary. A set of research articles explore this in different ways using a set of case studies, and the policy arena that follows examines liquid engineering in the context of development practice. All the articles suggest that development engineering is at its most successful when embedded locally and informed by global standards flexed or adapted to local conditions. The local through the integration of relevant case studies can then also shape global practices in useful ways.

This special issue on the global and the local in engineering and development builds on an earlier JID Policy Arena on reflexive engineering. It extends our thinking by elaborating the notion of 'liquid engineering', which sees engineering and development as messy and improvisational, a borderland hybrid space, composed of objects and practices, and as reflexive and evolutionary. A set of research articles explore this in different ways using a set of case studies, and the policy arena that follows examines liquid engineering in the context of development practice. All the articles suggest that development engineering is at its most successful when embedded locally and informed by global standards flexed or adapted to local conditions. The local through the integration of relevant case studies can then also shape global practices in useful ways. (c) 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We use the concept of ‘imagined communities’, and related work on socio-technical imaginaries and expectations, to reflect on how Scotland is represented simultaneously as ‘sick and unhealthy’ and a ‘living lab’ due to its innovative medical research. Together, we suggest these narratives have driven a broader health and wealth agenda in post-devolution Scotland, which became salient during the 2014 independence referendum. We draw on research conducted during the independence referendum to consider how key stakeholders enacted imagined communities/identities (sick but also innovative) as they considered the historical impact of devolution on health and research systems and envisioned future independence. The referendum provided an opportunity to consider how Scottish health and research systems have been imagined over time. Our findings further the understanding of the impact of devolution on healthcare and medical research, revealing the role played by policy narratives rooted in imagined identities.

Science, technology and innovation are vital to poverty alleviation and improved health. However, although improving immediate access to health care and existing health technologies is essential, simply importing technologies and products is not enough to create sustainable health care systems. Countries also need to build the capacities and institutions to develop their own technology and innovations which are tailored to local needs. But for innovation to meet local needs, countries need to develop dynamic and integrated health innovation systems. This is for several reasons. Firstly, there tends to be a profound lack of understanding between those in the world of healthcare and those who work in health innovation and production of pharmaceuticals. And unless researchers and producers network with local users and consumers, they are much less likely to respond to local needs. Secondly improved innovation capacity that responds to the needs of users does not occur in isolation - it is not the product of one-off scientific inventions, heavy investment in science or one-off policies. Rather it is dependent on networks through government institutions, private companies and a wide variety of end-user groupings at national, international and sectoral levels. Finally, knowledge is not accumulated and built up in one set of institutions and transferred to another set - it results instead from the interplay between different organisations and institutions. There is now an unparalleled opportunity to address both the issues of neglected diseases and to develop such integrated health innovation systems. Huge investments are currently being made in global health programmes which seek to improve health services and health innovation systems. The challenge for African policymakers is to adopt strategies for integrating global programmes with local and regional health innovation systems.

This paper focuses on business models and value chains to analyse sectoral innovation systems involving synthetic biology and gene editing, as potentially disruptive platform technologies in the life sciences. In the context of industrial biotechnology, we propose that the extent to which an innovation is expected to be disruptive, and the location of that disruption in existing value chains, are relevant to policy decision making on how to govern innovative technologies. Policy decisions on how to regulate or support an innovative technology will be among the most important factors determining the extent to which it is able to deliver its disruptive potential, leading to sectoral transformations through new business models and value chains. This mode of thinking about disruption and innovation could be incorporated in standard procedures for policy makers to guide decisions designed to support translation from basic scientific research to societally useful products and processes.

We use the concept of ‘imagined communities’, and related work on socio-technical imaginaries and expectations, to reflect on how Scotland is represented simultaneously as ‘sick and unhealthy’ and a ‘living lab’ due to its innovative medical research. Together, we suggest these narratives have driven a broader health and wealth agenda in post-devolution Scotland, which became salient during the 2014 independence referendum. We draw on research conducted during the independence referendum to consider how key stakeholders enacted imagined communities/ identities (sick but also innovative) as they considered the historical impact of devolution on health and research systems and envisioned future independence. The referendum provided an opportunity to consider how Scottish health and research systems have been imagined over time. Our findings further the understanding of the impact of devolution on healthcare and medical research, revealing the role played by policy narratives rooted in imagined identities. Corresponding author: James Mittra, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (STIS), School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, Old Surgeons’ Hall, High School Yards, Edinburgh EH1 1LZ, UK. Email: James.Mittra@ed.ac.uk 823221 SRO0010.1177/1360780418823221Sociological Research OnlineMittra et al. research-article2019

The paper aims to build understanding of the recent growth of interest in engineering for international development as an emerging focus of new knowledge, practice, and community development. In the paper, we create a borderlands approach to studying the activities referred to as engineering for development and development engineering. These activities take place in 'borderland' spaces where new approaches are being tried out through creative engagement of networks and communities willing to integrate social as well as technical knowledge and practice. We analyze four cases, selected as exemplars of engineering for development, from a large data set of case studies to demonstrate the socio-economic impact of research. We found evidence of important and original engineering, which showed paradigmatic shifts in engineering knowledge and practice. There was ambivalence inside the engineering community about engineering quality, mixing pride in the building of new paradigms with modesty about whether new knowledge and practices were 'real' engineering. These findings provide evidence that engineering aimed at global development offers an exciting new 'borderlands' approach to engineering that warrants further study.

Some emerging countries have made significant progress in developing local pharmaceutical and biotechnology but had less success in building medical device industries (MDIs). This paper explores the weak development of local MDIs by analysing the contrasting evolutionary trajectories of Indian healthcare technology sectors. The Indian pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries have emerged as leading global suppliers of generic drugs and vaccines, in marked contrast to the medical devices industry. This paper reveals that existence of a weak collaborative linkage between medical device manufacturers and the Indian health system, which largely lacks a systemic and cross-sectoral linkages, and weak communication between industry and government policy-makers have become a huge barrier to the development of the Indian MDI in the contemporary neo-liberal environment. The weak connection between technology and industrial policy and healthcare policy objectives has severely hampered both development of national technological capabilities and the creation of affordable health care.

The Scottish referendum of 2014 encouraged massive public debate, including on Scotland’s scientific performance and its ability to harness innovation and increase global competitivens. The science base in Scotland has traditionally been strong with world leading universities driving development of science. However, the science base has not translated well into innovation. This paper uses statistical data, over 30 interviews and two workshops/focus groups with business and policy leaders to analyse the key scientific and industrial dynamics feeding into the debate and investigate the potential impact of enhanced autonomy on the Scottish innovation system.

In this paper, we investigate the implementation challenge of Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) in catch-up regional environments, through the lens of capacity building. We analyse capacity building at two levels: micro-level (individual organisations) and meso-level (regional inter-organisational networks). We use empirical evidence from 50 interviews conducted in the period 2015–2017 from two Greek regions dramatically hit by the economic crisis (Crete and Central Macedonia). We argue that in the Cretan and Central Macedonian context, the difficulty of implementing S3 is directly linked with firms’ lack of adsorptive capability to exploit university-generated knowledge, university knowledge that is too abstract for firm’s to easily acquire, as well as to the capability of regional actors to build inter-organisational networking that fits their strategic needs.

The importance of science in development has been increasingly recognised in development discourses and policy since 2000. Engineering is less visible though engineering and engineers are important for the building and maintenance of transport, water, energy, industrial, informatics, urban and health systems. This article aims to investigate why engineering has not received more emphasis, including why development engineering has not been institutionalised like tropical medicine. It explores the nature of engineering in development, highlights recent efforts to headline engineering for development and, using analyses of what engineers know and do inside international development, suggests that its profile and effectiveness is emerging.