Program on Innovation Systems Management (PRISM): A Strategy for Improving Research Effectiveness

Abstract

Research supported by PRISM seeks to develop strategies for enhancing effectiveness by attending to the producer-user linkage. PRISM will fill an important role in strengthening the ultimate value of development research supported by the Centre by generating knowledge about the processes of innovation development, effectiveness and application-domains still relatively unexplored by the Centre's more traditional divisions. The problems faced by the developing countries in engaging as equal partners in these processes are both profound and urgent. Their solution requires explicit recognition that knowledge, production and use occurs at all points in the system, that attention to capacity building and implementation of change is needed throughout, and that effective and sustainable use of science and technology involves much more than access to machines and information.