ALIA Research Project

1. Understanding
information needs to support
Australia’s policy of engagement
with Asia
Roxanne Missingham

2. • Knowledge society
• Policy problem
• Knowledge theories
• Perspectives:
– Industry
– Researchers
– Universities and libraries
• Methodology
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3. Knowledge society
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4. Policy problem
• Knowledge transfer
– Primarily investigated as science &
technology
– Measures – patents, innovation, research
outputs
– Civic epistemologies (Jasanoff)
– Information ecologies (Davenport and Prusak)
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5. University communication
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6. Disconnect
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7. Developing our Asia-capability
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We will develop more Asia-capable talent and
help Australians gain study and work
experience, form relationships, learn to adapt
behaviour to Asian contexts and learn to work
more effectively with Asian governments.
We will develop Australia’s ‘Asia literacy’
beyond language skills. We will develop strong
people-to-people relationships.
Our intention is to develop a ‘deep knowledge’
of Asia and to broaden and deepen our
engagement and relationships in the region.

8. Knowledge theories
• Knowledge management
– knowledge-driven model (unidirectional and
logical flow of information from researchers)
– transfer – generally inter firm as theory
– Actor network theory
– ‘Proteus phenomenon’ (Grimshaw et al)
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9. Research
“The results of the survey show that the acquisition
of additional research funds is a major motive for
university centers to co-operate with industrial
firms. The exchange of knowledge with industrial
researchers is, however, a further key issue that
can explain the considerable growth of university–
industry interaction…”
Meyer-Krahmer and Schmoch, 1998 “Science-based technologies: university–industry interactions in
four fields”, Research Policy, 27(10), pp. 835–851
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10. Channels
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Bekkers, R. Freitas, I.M.B. (2008) “Analysing knowledge transfer channels between universities and
industry: To what degree do sectors also matter?”, Research Policy, 37 (10), Pages 1837–1853

11. Perspectives
• Industry
– Sharing knowledge
– Commissioning
– Search?
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12. Perspectives
• Researchers
– “the activities that make up much of the work
of knowledge transfer—outreach, building
partnerships with nonacademic organizations,
and plain language communication—are not
widely accepted as legitimate forms of
scholarship” (Jacobson, Butterill, Goering)
– Open access research (Kingsley)
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13. Perspectives
• Universities and libraries
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15. • Repositories and libraries
– Snowden: “Repository rhymes with
suppository. Guess which is better?”
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Contour maps of overall indices for selective countries (1998–2008)

18. Methodologies
• reading study
• Focus groups
– Institutes preliminary dsicussion
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Thirst for knowledge
I am always on the look out for new
research papers with good data.
Senator Kate Lundy 2014

20. Research funded by ALIA
Questions/discussion
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