The research portfolio

Using this knowledge it is possible to make arguments about the likely commercial success of various new products which have a range of advantages over current therapy and to make an assessment of the sales which could be achieved. Clearly by the time a new project produces a marketable drug several years will have elapsed and other companies will have introduced new 

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It was widely expressed that more effort needs to be put into making research outcomes more accessible (Scott et al., 2005). Different audiences need different outputs, and traditional forms of communication within the science community do not meet policy makers needs. Many felt that two key stages are currently neglected dissemination of scientific knowledge beyond the scientific world and translation/synthesis of findings for policy. In different science-meets-policy events, it was considered that the job is only half done on completion of a research project. Synthesis is needed across the research portfolio. Policy makers are also interested in work in progress projects should be required to produce an annual summary of policy implications ( layman report ). 

EPSRC 1999 Ri.sk As.ses.sment and Management - A Retrospective Evaluation of the EPSRC s Recent Research Portfolio. Swindon Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK. http //www.epsrc.ac.uk/... 

A third balanced portfolio, of funding mechanisms, is needed if the above-mentioned research frontiers are to be pursued in the most effective manner. Different frontiers will require different mixes of mechanisms, and the decision to use a particular mechanism should be determined by the nature of the research problem, by instramentation and facilities requirements, and by the perceived need for trained personnel in particular areas for industry. This topic is discussed in more detail in Chapter 10. 

Research Priorities for Airborne Particulate Matter I. Immediate Priorities and a Long-Range Research Portfolio (1998) II. Evaluating Research Progress and Updating the Portfolio (1999)... 

Therefore, the research and innovation system of a country has to be analysed and must be convinced by the opportunities and the new vision of a 2000 Watt per capita society. Any recommended efficiency-policy portfolio and R D efforts have to be evaluated within the context of the relevant research and innovation boundary conditions of the actors and institutions involved (see Fig. 20.3). The research and innovation systems of a country encompass the biotopes of all the institutions that are ... 

Pharmaceutical pipeline portfolios, however, have industry-specific nuances, which present some significant challenges. Traditional financial portfolio analysis often fails to address these subtle distinctions, while pharmaceutical domain experts often lack the financial portfolio background required to adapt those approaches to pipeline issues. The mismatch results in decision analysis on the basis of a suboptimal set of evaluation tools. This type of inadequate anal5dic methodology has huge financial implications in the pharmaceutical world, where yearly research and development costs are now over 50 billion globally. ... 

Establish a frontier research portfolio able to promote innovation in catalysis use especially at the SMEs level. 

The project portfolio enables an overview on the ongoing research activities. Numerous economic and technical parameters have been proposed to provide a meaningful picture. Examples are attractiveness, strategic fit, innovation, gross/net present value, expected profits, R D expenditures, development stage, probability of success, technology fit, and realization time. Most of these parameters cannot be determined quantitatively, at least during the early phases of a project. 

If we start relying on small companies to produce advanced technologies, the industry will be hurting 10 or 15 years down the road. Small companies are very focused on the development end of technology and ensuring that they have a revenue stream. They don t have the resources to do research in broad areas. Companies need to have a balanced portfolio that includes a number of different avenues for doing fundamental research in and of itself fundamental research as it may apply to a technology, industry, and applications and applied research and advanced development activities. We need to have a balanced perspective of the research path. 

There is no question from what we have heard that university research is of increasing importance to industry and that this is controversial. Big companies have been neglecting basic research. For example, the number of publications from IBM and Bell Laboratories dropped by a factor of 2 between 1985 and 1995. At this rate it is clear that universities will be of increasing importance to industrial research. Within the industrial portfolio, there are high-risk/high-reward investments and there are low-risk/incremental improvement investments. Universities can, in principle, be leveraged for benefits in both scenarios, but in reality universities are much better suited to the former. 

In order to generate the background information for the 5-year plan a complete examination of the existing portfolio is required a review of all activities which affect the conduct of the business. A number of different perspectives are required in order to describe the company s evolution to the current point. These will include activities at subsidiary level and by therapeutic area. They examine activities from the perspective of research, development, manufacturing and marketing. The company s performance will be studied intrinsically and also against competitive benchmarks at product level, therapeutic area level and corporate level. 

The intellectual property (the patent portfolio) covering the cephalosporin field was held by the National Research and Development Council (NRDC) in the United Kingdom, largely because early recognition of the value of cephalosporins had resulted from the pioneering work at Oxford University on strains of a microorganism first harvested by Professor Brotzu from a sewage outfall in Sardinia. 

Rather interestingly Dow and also DuPont have very recently changed tack slightly and formed bodies to oversee their company s research portfolio a Research Council in the case of Dow and a Growth Council in DuPont [B-36, B-37]. DuPont have described their system as follows. 

This research was conducted within RAND Infrastructure, Safety, and Environment (ISE), a unit of the RAND Corporation. The mission of ISE is to improve the development, operation, use, and protection of society s essential built and natural assets, and to enhance the related social assets of safety and security of individuals in transit and in their workplaces and communities. The ISE research portfolio encompasses research and analysis on a broad range of policy areas including homeland security, criminal justice, public safety, occupational safety, the environment, energy, natural resources, climate, agriculture, economic development, transportation, information and telecommunications technologies, space exploration, and other aspects of science and technology policy. 

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