The Cambridge Analytica controversy flags up the ethical perils of research with Big Data – especially when it has commercial potential, says John Holmwood
Psychologist Michal Kosinski’s work shows how digital footprints can predict a person’s sexual orientation, political views and more. Is it a danger or a warning about threats to privacy? John Morgan reports from California
Higher education institutions make a loss when they invest in international partnerships, but the wider community reaps a windfall, says New Zealand report
Mathematicians – and, indeed, other scholars – who cooperate with intelligence agencies face a moral dilemma knowing that their research could well be applied in unethical ways, says Michael Harris
Introduced to help boost technology transfer amid renewed political focus on ‘industrial strategy’, the KEF aims to complement the REF and TEF. But how will it work? Is it even necessary? And is the UK really underperforming at commercialising its research? Rachael Pells reports
Knowledge exchange sits low on academia’s menu, overshadowed by meatier mains, but could the assessment of universities’ third-stream activities tempt some to make it a signature dish?
Simon Baker discovers what the World Economic Forum’s ‘community’ of universities – the Global University Leaders Forum (GULF) – can teach us about industry-academia collaboration and innovation with economic impact
Not far from the birthplace of preventative medicine, research institutes in the French capital are working together to launch a new era of technology transfer
Australia’s new impact assessment exercise recognises cultural, social and environmental impacts, but there is a danger that economic impact will override everything, says David Lloyd
Getting innovations to market can be a conundrum, but help and support is available for those limbering up for the knowledge exchange framework, says Siraj Ahmed Shaikh
In a pair of books exploring aspects of Jewish identity, Devorah Baum reflects on Jewishness and the human condition. She talks about turning uncomfortable ‘Jewish feelings’ such as guilt into something positive, and how humour is a way of coping with life’s trials
Industrial and commercial partnerships for economic growth are important, but universities must also look to the public and third sectors, says Claire Taylor
Ministers are foolish to abandon the conclusions of the 1971 review that has informed UK research policy for 45 years, say Donald Braben and John Dainton