Address: SPRU, Mantell Building, Sussex University, Brighton BN1 9RF, ENGLAND
Name of CECSTS coordinator: Dr Erik Millstone, telephone number -44-(0)1273 877380; email address e.p.millstone@sussex.ac.uk
Contact name for accommodation support: The Accommodation Office, The Refectory, Sussex University, Brighton BN1 9QU, ENGLAND
SPRU Telephone number: -44-(0)1273 686758.
SPRU Fax number: -44-(0)1273 685865
SPRU Graduate Studies Office Telephone: -44-(0)1273 678168;
email: sprupgadmission@sussex.ac.uk
Sussex University WebSite URL: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/
SPRU Web Site URL: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/
SPRU Teaching Programme Web Site URL: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/teaching.html
2. Description of the Science Policy Research Unit
SPRU has been carrying out world-class research and teaching on issues relating to scientific discovery and technical change since 1966. The Unit's work is independent, multidisciplinary and international in scope. It is concerned with the challenges that confront decision makers in government, business and international agencies, and with the public debates that surround these challenges.
SPRU’s staff of some forty researchers come from a variety of backgrounds and academic disciplines and their work covers many different policy and management issues, most of which cross disciplinary boundaries. Several related fields of inquiry are central to the Unit's research:
· The nature and determinants of scientific research, technological development, and the adoption and diffusion of innovations together with methods for measuring and evaluating them.
· The effective management of research, development and innovative activities undertaken by research organisations, by firms and by governments, and the factors that account for differences in performance.
· The social, economic, environmental and security consequences
of technical change and the implications for public policy.
SPRU is an international graduate school and research centre, with a thriving community of researchers, lecturers and students who come from over 30 countries all round the world.
SPRU has extensive links with local, national and international organisations, and holds a wide range of seminars and workshops in which leading experts engage in debate with SPRU staff and students. SPRU provides a dynamic and stimulating environment, and is at the forefront in addressing the future social, economic, political and management challenges posed by research and development, technical change and the innovation process.
The Unit has its own research library with a unique and substantial science and technology policy collection. In addition, students have access to the University of Sussex Library, which contains a collection of about 600,000 volumes and more than 3,500 periodicals, and to the British Library for Development Studies. The latter is housed on the University of Sussex campus at the internationally renowned Institute of Development Studies (IDS). All libraries offer access to world-wide electronic information sources.
Students at SPRU are part of a community of approximately 2000 graduate students at Sussex University. Thirty per cent come from outside the United Kingdom and represent over 100 nationalities.
Each year approximately 50 students register on the SPRU MSc programmes and between fifteen and twenty students join the DPhil research programme. At any one time about 100 students are in residence in SPRU, creating an active and lively student community which brings together diverse cultural, academic and career interests.
Our teaching programmes are deliberately structured to allow students
studying for different degrees to share certain courses and to experience
the benefits which derive from learning and studying with individuals from
many different backgrounds and interests.
3 Description of the SPRU postgraduate teaching programme
SPRU provides an integrated set of masters degrees and also runs a research degree programme. The core of SPRU's masters' teaching consists of an MSc in Science and Technology Policy (STP) and an MSc in Technology and Innovation Management (TIM). Both those masters degrees are offered primarily as one-year full time programmes, but they can also be taken over two years on a part-time basis. SPRU also offers an MPhil in Technology and Development, which is a two-year programme that combines many of the elements of the STP and TIM MSc programmes, but also includes an extra course on Technology and the Management of Investment Projects in Developing Countries.
SPRU teaching is organised into three 10-week terms. The Autumn Term runs from October to December, the Spring Term from January to March and the Summer term runs from April to the end of June.
4 Information on courses
The SPRU post-graduate programme offers three sets of courses, firstly core courses which are required components for our degrees, secondly research training courses, and thirdly optional courses. Most of the core courses are taught in the autumn term, research training courses are provided in both the autumn and spring terms, while the optional courses are available in the spring term. In the summer term, the only courses taught are: Technology and the Management of Investment Projects in Developing Countries, and Technology Management Project II.
The courses normally offered in each academic year are listed below, under those three headings.
Core courses
Economic Analysis for Science and Technology Policy introduces students to the basic reasoning processes, measures and terminologies of economics that are useful for analysing issues of science and technology policy. It examines the changing role of science and technology in economics and how economic problems are identified, analysed and resolved. Students consider examples where economic concepts and analytical techniques are used to address the role of markets and their impact on the allocation of society’s resources at the level of the firm, nation, region and the international economy.
Course convenor: Prof Ed Steinmuller
When taught: Autumn term
Form of teaching: Lectures and seminars
Number of formal contact hours: 20
Formal assessment: Examination and ~5000 word essay
Credits: 5
Inside the Innovating Organisation enables students to understand the structure and components of the innovation process and the management challenges involved in its successful operation. The course examines innovation models and cases of innovation success and failure within manufacturing and service, and public and private organisations. It explores processes of product and process innovation with reference to inter-firm relationships, network concepts, and incremental and radical innovation. Key stages within these processes are examined, including links to corporate strategy, marketing, project design and implementation, and organisational behaviour.
Course convenors: Prof John Bessant and Dr Qing Wang
When taught: Autumn term
Form of teaching: Lectures and seminars
Number of formal contact hours: 30
Formal assessment: ~5,000 word essay:
Credits: 10
Policy Analysis and the Policy Making Process introduces students to an interdisciplinary set of concepts and a vocabulary with which to discuss and analyse science and technology policy issues. The course examines how actors and institutions involved in the process of developing and implementing policy make use of information and other social, economic and political resources to implement change. Analytical perspectives focus on interactions among actors, negotiation, and the dynamics of the policy making process. These are illustrated by drawing upon environmental, information and communication technology, biotechnology and other policy issue areas.
Course convenor: Dr Richard Hawkins
When taught: Autumn term
Form of teaching: Lectures and seminars
Number of formal contact hours: 20
Formal assessment: Examination and ~5000 word essay
Credits: 5
Research Issues in Technology and Innovation Management exposes students to a broad range of innovation management, technology policy and related issues in areas in which SPRU has distinctive expertise. Themes include: innovation management in biotechnology, managing intellectual property rights, information and communication technology and service innovations, environmental management, and innovation in large complex systems. Students will acquire an appreciation of the multidisciplinary and team-based nature of SPRU research and the various methodologies that are used.
Course convenor: Dr Tom Whiston
When taught: Autumn term
Form of teaching: Lectures and seminars
Number of formal contact hours: 20
Credits: 5
The Social Institution of Science aims to question commonly held assumptions about knowledge production and to help students develop a sophisticated understanding of the work of researchers. Governments supporting research need to design policies for what science will become, not for what it once was. Companies managing international research laboratories need to foster scientific networks and effective communication. The realities and complexities of knowledge production lie behind the processes and structure of almost all scientific and technological institutions.
Course convenor: Dr Diana Hicks
When taught: Autumn term
Form of teaching: Lectures and seminars
Number of formal contact hours: 40
Formal assessment: Examination and ~5000 word essay
Credits: 10
Technology, Firms and Innovation Systems analyses the role of technology in economic development and structural change in both developed and industrialising countries. It traces the historical development of the business firm in combining technological, organisational and financial resources into product and process innovations. It also shows how firms are influenced by the national systems of innovation in which they are embedded, as well as by global technological developments. The course provides the basis for understanding the context and the consequences of science and technology policy, whether national, regional or corporate.
Course convenors: Prof Keith Pavitt and Prof Nick von Tunzelmann
When taught: Autumn term
Form of teaching: Lectures and seminars
Number of formal contact hours: 40
Formal assessment: Examination and ~5000 word essay
Credits: 10
Technology and the Management of Investment Projects in Developing Countries addresses this area of technology management in the industrialising countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, and in the re-industrialising countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Investment in new production facilities is one of the main ways industry applies new technology. The economic, social and environmental consequences of industrial expansion depend heavily on how firms manage the technological aspects of investment projects. The course pays particular attention to the role of financial institutions and the roles played by technology-using industrial firms. The course enables students to understand the roles of different organisations involved in investment projects and to assess critically approaches to project appraisal and management methods.
Course convenor: Martin Bell
When taught: Summer term
Form of teaching: Lectures and seminars
Number of formal contact hours: 20
Formal assessment: Two ~2,000 word project reports
Research Training Courses
Analytical and Study Skills facilitates the process by which students learn to bring the resources of a range of traditionally separate intellectual disciplines to bear upon science and technology policy. It also provides training in the skills required for study and presentation, aiming to raise the standard of students’ performance throughout their academic and professional careers.
Course convenor: Dr Erik Millstone
When taught: Autumn term
Form of teaching: Lectures and seminars
Number of formal contact hours: 20
Formal assessment: Coursework exercises
Credits: 5
Research Methods and Analytical Techniques provides students with a practical appreciation of the use of basic statistical techniques, and a set of skills to facilitate the successful completion of their dissertation projects. Instruction is provided on the nature and use of descriptive and analytical statistics, and basic computational methods. Students are also taught how to approach, plan and conduct their dissertation work.
Course convenor: Dr Diana Hicks and Prof. Nick von Tunzelmann
When taught: Spring term
Form of teaching: Lectures and seminars
Number of formal contact hours: 40
Formal assessment: Coursework exercises
Credits: 10
Research Skills in Management introduces innovation management tools and research methodologies which students will learn to apply in the Technology Management Project courses and dissertation. These skills range from social science research design and methodology through to consultancy skills, creative problem-solving, project design, time management and presentation skills.
Course convenor: Prof John Bessant and Dr Qing Wang
When taught: Spring term
Form of teaching: Lectures and seminars
Number of formal contact hours: 20
Formal assessment: ~5,000 word essay:
Credits: 10
Technology Management Project I is designed to integrate theoretical perspectives on innovation management with management tools and skills. Students gain experience in the design and development of a practical innovation management consulting project. The course involves group work and includes industry visits, identification of areas of interest, archive searching, establishing industry or public sector organisation contacts and writing up a project proposal.
Course convenors: Prof John Bessant and Dr Qing Wang
When taught: Spring Term
Form of teaching: Supervised case study
Number of formal contact hours: 20
Formal assessment: incorporated with Technology Management Project II see below
Credits: 10
Technology Management Project II involves carrying out a practical innovation management consulting project. After completing the preparation stage in Project I, students work in groups and with an innovating organisation. Students conduct research in the organisation, analyse the results and present these to the organisation in the form of a consultancy report. The course is completed with a group and individual debriefing and written report, during which key lessons about theory and practice in technology and innovation management are drawn. The course develops practical problem-solving skills through first-hand experience within organisations.
Course convenors: : Prof John Bessant and Dr Qing Wang
When taught: Summer term
Form of teaching: Group study and presentations
Number of formal contact hours: Not less than 10 hours of supervision
Formal assessment: ~5,000 word essay:
Credits: 15
Tools for Innovation Management covers a range of qualitative and quantitative methods for analysis and intervention in the innovation process. These include tools for project selection, planning and implementation, for auditing and diagnosis, for forecasting, and for organisational development. Emphasis is placed on developing a critical approach to the selection and use of these tools. Students will develop their own ‘toolbox’, adapting tools for use in the Project courses and dissertation.
Course convenors: Dr Tom Whiston, Prof John Bessant and Dr Qing Wang
When taught: Autumn term
Form of teaching: 30
Number of formal contact hours:
Formal assessment: ~5,000 word essay:
Credits: 10
Optional courses
Advanced Perspectives on Technological Change provides a vehicle for
supervised reading and writing in specialised areas of the economics
and/or politics of technological change and innovation. When the unit
is provided in the field of the economics of technological change (as
it will be in the 1997/98 academic year), it offers advanced study in
theory and empirical techniques such as productivity analysis and
economic growth accounting, theory and empirical technique for
diffusion analysis, and the economic theory of R&D as an investment
and as a competitive strategy.
Course convenor: Prof Ed Steinmuller
When taught: Spring term
Form of teaching: lectures and seminars
Number of formal contact hours: 40
Formal assessment: ~5,000 word essay
Credits: 15
Technology Strategy introduces the nature and significance of technology strategies in firms. It provides a framework for understanding and analysing how firms’ R&D and other technological activities contribute effectively to strategic objectives by sustaining and supporting existing businesses, by identifying and exploiting opportunities to enter new markets through diversification, and by coping with major technological, economic and social discontinuities. The meanings, main tasks and limits of technology strategy are considered, together with management approaches which help firms achieve these tasks in practice.
Course convenor: Prof Keith Pavitt
When taught: Spring term
Form of teaching: Lectures and seminars
Number of formal contact hours: 40
Formal assessment: ~5000 word essay
Credits: 15
Energy Policy provides students with a critical perspective on energy policy issues. The context is international and focuses on policy processes rather than technical details. Policy is viewed both as a rational technocratic activity and as the outcome of sometimes conflicting economic and social forces. Among the issues covered are resource depletion/exhaustion and technology choice, the process of new technology development, and economic regulation, liberalisation and energy utility decision-making.
Course convenor: Prof Gordon MacKerron
When taught: Spring term
Form of teaching: Lectures and seminars
Number of formal contact hours: 40
Formal assessment: ~5,000 word essay:
Credits: 15
Environmental Policy and Industrial Technology enables students to analyse, criticise and formulate policies for the protection of environmental and public health. The course is predicated on the assumption that these issues require an inter- disciplinary approach which deals with relationships between social, economic, political, technical and scientific factors. The approach is comparative and focuses on the way environmental problems are dealt with by different countries. This enables students to identify key factors accounting for different inputs and outcomes in the policy making process.
Course convenor: Dr Erik Millstone
When taught: Spring term
Form of teaching: Lectures and seminars
Number of formal contact hours: 40
Formal assessment: ~5,000 word essay:
Credits: 15
Information and Communication Technology Policy and Strategy provides students with an overview of the strategic management and policy issues raised by the production and use of advanced information and communication technologies and services. Perspectives are drawn from economics, management and organisation theory, as well as political science and sociology. The focus is on the evolution of a complex technical system, the wider context of innovation, and user requirements in the public and private sectors, including intellectual property rights and data protection.
Course convenors: Dr Richard Hawkins and Prof Robin Mansell
When taught: Spring term
Form of teaching: Lectures and seminars
Number of formal contact hours: 40
Formal assessment: ~5,000 word essay:
Credits: 15
Planning Under Conditions of Risk and Uncertainty addresses policy, planning, methodological and analytical dimensions related to ‘risk’ and ‘uncertainty’ faced by the public and private sectors at times of rapid change and increasing complexity. It considers industrial planning in large and small enterprises, environmental and ecological issues, legislative boundaries in relation to environmental, energy, safety and consumer protection areas, education and training, R&D policy, and Third World issues. Students acquire methodologies and techniques for technology forecasting and risk reduction, and appreciation of the limitations of these techniques.
Course convenor: Dr Tom Whiston
When taught: Spring term
Form of teaching: Lectures and seminars
Number of formal contact hours: 40
Formal assessment: ~5,000 word essay:
Credits: 15
Research Policy for the 21st Century: Preparing for the Millennium examines the role and management of scientific research within national science and technology systems. The nature of corporate and university research is examined. The structures for funding and directing science in several countries are explored, and techniques for assessing scientific output are introduced. Current issues such as international collaborative research and university-industry links, are discussed.
Course convenor:
When taught: Dr Diana Hicks
Form of teaching: Lectures and seminars
Number of formal contact hours: 40
Formal assessment: ~5,000 word essay:
Credits: 15
Technology and Development addresses policy and management issues concerned with technology and industrialisation in the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, and in the former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It focuses on the process of accumulating human and institutional capabilities for managing and generating technological change at the level of firms, industries and economies. Using case studies, the course examines the analytical basis for government policy and the strategic management of organisations.
Course convenor: Martin Bell
When taught: Spring Term
Form of teaching: Lectures and seminars
Number of formal contact hours: 40
Formal assessment: ~5,000 word essay
Credits: 15