The Bruny Island Battery Project is trailing new technology in Tasmania, with the aim of creating a grid that is flexible, reliable, cheaper and based on renewable energy. The researchers involved tell us more in this repost from The Conversation
Read MoreWill it soon be possible to outsource our caring responsibilities for ourselves, our children and our parents to robots? Catherine Smith and Helen Dickinson ask what the human rights, privacy, equity and practical implications for care would be in a tech-dominated future.
Read MorePublic sector innovation (PSI) units have spread rapidly across government departments in Australia and New Zealand in recent years, and an ANZSOG-funded research project is providing the first analysis of their structures and operations. The project's first report features results from a survey of 52 PSI units and teams, conducted this year by Dr Michael McGann, Professor Jenny Lewis, and Dr Emma Blomkamp, from Melbourne University’s Policy Lab.
Read MoreIf you work for a social enterprise, youth organisation, health organisation or government, you are invited to participate in the ‘NSW Social Enterprise and Well-being for Young People Workshop’ hosted by the Centre for Social Impact in partnership with Vic Health, the Foundation for Young Australians and Social Traders.
Read MoreIn this piece, UK-based social affairs journalist Saba Salman (@Saba_Salman) considers what a truly accessible city would look like and explores some innovations currently underway to create such a city into the future. This piece is a re-post from Saba's blog, The Social Issue.
Read MoreIn the new age of big data, firms are gathering comprehensive information about consumers - transaction and consumption data, browsing history, social network, or location data - that is increasingly tipping the scales in the firms' favour. In this post, Lauren Solomon, Chief Executive Officer of the Consumer Policy Research Centre, reflects on the need to broaden our understanding of consumer data issues in Australia, beyond establishing a Consumer Data Right and the Review into Open Banking. This piece was originally published in The Mandarin.
Read MoreWhat links flexible work, flexible thought, and diversity? Sue Williamson, Senior Lecturer of Human Resource Management at UNSW Canberra's School of Business explains these interlinking concepts in this repost from Government News.
Read MoreThe idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) is gaining traction in Australia and around the globe. While a UBI has the potential to lift people and communities out of poverty, Michael Fletcher from the Aukland University of Technology warns us that it is not a panacea; government still needs to provide comprehensive services and tailored support. This policy analysis originally appeared on the New Zealand web site Briefing Papers, and can be viewed here.
Read MoreIn this blog that originally appeared on the Nesta blog, Alex Glennie and Madeleine Gabriel examine the role of innovation in helping to support the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but caution that innovation is not a certain road to reducing global inequality.
Read MoreWould you, and should you trust autonomous systems? How should artificial intelligence process and act on information that could have ethical ramifications? RMIT's James Harland explains that ethics should be a key consideration in AI research. This article was originally posted on The Conversation.
Read MoreThe controversies of the 2016 census now seem in the distant past but the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is busy collating the numbers from last year’s eventful census and are preparing for the release of data over the coming months. Stephen Gow, from specialist health system advisory service Open Advisory Pty Ltd, considers how the census powers our understanding of the notion of “place”.
Read MoreSocial sciences can undoubtedly benefit from developments in computational tools for data collection and analysis, as well as the growing accessibility and availability of data sources. However, Marta Stelmaszak and Philipp Hukal flag the importance of continued careful reflection when using new forms of data and methods in this sphere, particularly reflection on and investigation of the mechanisms that generate and manipulate information up to the point of collection. It is this reflection and investigation, they argue, that sets social science apart from data science. This post was originally published on the LSE Impact Blog as part of its digital methodologies series.
Read MoreDETOXING DEMOCRACY: Citizen deliberation is a powerful tool for legitimisation, but can it become institutionalised? Just as Yarra Valley Water consulted its community in a way that encouraged their close deliberation on the issues, agencies could cultivate councils of people reflective of community makeup for ongoing capacity to reflect community deliberation.
Read MoreIn 2008, for the first time in the history of the United States, more than 1% of the adult American adult population was incarcerated. The prison population had increased approximately sevenfold since 1970, the US imprisoned more types of criminal offenders than any other country, and it kept them in prison longer. Here Jo Luetjens reports on work with her ANZSOG colleague Prof Michael Mintrom on how design thinking drove the introduction of an investment approach in the US state of Kansas. Early results are promising, and many other states have since taken up this approach.
Read MorePolicy Whisperer Susan Maury has been the guest curator of the Twitter account @RealScientists this week. The account has global reach and is followed by nearly 40,000 scientists and people who like to learn about science. Today's 'storified' post captures Susan's experience on the account over a single day, with discussion ranging from the work of the Women's Research, Advocacy and Policy (WRAP) Centre, Power to Persuade, the Women’s Policy Action Tank, utilising evidence to advocate for better policy, and how evidence is often misused in the policy debate.
Read MoreSocial Services Minister Christian Porter hails his new welfare investment approach as “close to revolutionary”. But how much is it a shift from the hardline approach? This piece, by David Donaldson, was originally published on The Mandarin.
Read MoreIn this post, Julie Thompson Klein draws together and guides us through the “abundance of resources” that exist to help teams working on inter- and transdisciplinary projects find common ground and advance common goals. The post includes links to five searchable repositories to assist researchers in this sphere. This post originally appeared on the Integration and Implementation Insights blog and is reposted with permission.
Read MoreI feel sorry for today’s students and educators. At every step of the process they are both told to be more innovative, more entrepreneurial, to prepare for this new world that no one actually can yet describe. We are beset with paralysis, be it students unable to visualize realistic role models or educators unsure of what is required of them. We are told that we have outgrown an education system designed for the industrial revolution. That the world no longer cares what you know, just what you can do with what you know. Increasingly institutions look beyond their best assets in search of golden ideas elsewhere, hoping to import programs and best practice. Guess what? They are kidding themselves.
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