2016 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Exploration of the innovation patterns in emerging, highly convergent life sciences domains
| Project/Area Number |
16K17165
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| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
Avila Alfonso 京都大学, 物質－細胞統合システム拠点, 特定拠点助教 (10724065)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
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| Keywords | convergence / interdisciplinarity / network theory / life sciences / bibliometric mapping |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In the FY2016, I focused my research efforts on the development of the bibliometric methodology for the assessment of scientific convergence in the field of life sciences. To confirm the practicality of the proposed bibliometric methodology, I began with the conduction of a pilot project on the PNAS journal. In this stage, I particularly concentrated on ways to improve the measurement of scientific convergence. Additionally, R scripts for the collection, processing, and analysis of data were developed. This step was conducted with the help of research assistants. Next, publication data were collected from the database Web of Science, around 1.5 million articles. Due to the large data, different approaches were carried out for the construction and clustering of large networks.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
In FY2016, research tasks were completed as planned. At first, difficulties arose in the handling of large amounts of data. The attendance to a big data science conference was crucial for bringing the research methods stage back in track.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The first months of the FY2017 will focus on the construction of the final science network, from which I will identify the “hotspots” of convergence in the field of life sciences. In subsequent months, these “hotspots” are to be assessed in terms of their collaboration schemes, degrees of emergence, types of actors, and sources of funding. The selection of these key “hotspots” is supported by additional data sources, including interviews with experts, and technology reports. Preferably, emerging, high-risk/high return, highly integrative fields of research across different regions of science are to be included.Following, my efforts will analyze the patterns of R&D institutions and organizational structures supporting key life sciences “hotspots.” In FY2017 I will attend a series of conferences to begin with the dissemination of the results obtained so far.
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