Research Policy in Morocco and the Impact on National Development

The research policies in Morocco's private and public sectors illustrate the uneven progress made during the past 65 years or so, ever since its independence in 1956. Initially placed on the backburner as the nation struggled to train cadres capable of managing the challenges of nationhood, research picked up as the new universities strove to become internationally competitive. In fact, in spite of the efforts of the state during the last two decades to restructure, coordinate and mobilize national research initiatives, this domain today remains fragmented, and in need of an appropriate governance policy. Essential human and material resources are still lacking, even as the new Moroccan constitution of 2011 specifically mentions research as a national priority. Like most other countries, Moroccan research today faces three immediate challenges: the health crisis resulting from the pandemic spread of COVID-19, the transition to a green economy, and the fourth digital revolution and its impact on industry. Morocco boasts a number of research facilities, mostly placed within the 12 public universities, in addition to several laboratories in private and public/private partnership institutions. Autonomous national research structures, such as the Moroccan Foundation for Advanced Science, Innovation and Research (MAScIR), also contribute to scientific production. Public universities thus continue to dominate research output, whether as measured in indexed publications or in number of registered patents. In spite of its favorable position when compared to African francophone countries, Moroccan research production remains modest and its socio-economic impact (eg. employment opportunities) remains limited. The strategic research plan for 2025 sets policy measures meant to improve research governance, to integrate research activity and innovation with the needs of the economy, to reinforce technology innovation, especially in the automotive and aeronautical industries, and to further research in energy efficiency and alternative energy sources. In addition, the recent research initiatives launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic by the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRST) and the Ministry of Higher Education have already started producing tangible results in pharmaceutical, biomedical and related industries. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Mentoring "in the time of cholera”: perspectives, promises and challenges in the preparation of mentors for diversity in the new digital teacher learning space

This article discusses the perspectives, challenges and promises of mentoring in the new digital teacher learning space. Specifically, it focuses on recent research agendas and policy trends aimed at redefining and "reinventing” the preparation of mentors in diverse socio-cultural educational contexts across the globe. These are contextualized by zooming in to the case of mentoring in Israeli teacher education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These studies exemplify concerted efforts to create new connections between research, policy and practice in order to inform on the preparation of mentors in highly diverse and disputed socio-cultural educational contexts. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How Did Colleges Disburse Emergency Aid During COVID-19? An Implementation Analysis of the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund

To address the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress authorized the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF I) in March 2020 with over $6 billion allocated for emergency financial aid. In this paper, we utilize the administrative burden framework to analyze HEERF I implementation for a stratified random sample of colleges, focusing on the implications for equity. We find that disbursement policies varied along two dimensions: (1) whether they imposed burdens on students by requiring applications and proof of hardship and (2) whether they targeted needy students and varied the amount of aid according to need. When we examine sectoral differences, we find that private for-profit colleges were more likely to place higher burden on students, whereas public and minority-serving institutions were more likely to reduce burden. © 2023 AERA.

Connecting Two Worlds enhancing knowledge sharing between academics and policymakers in Aotearoa New Zealand

The Covid-19 pandemic has put the research-policy interface in the spotlight, exposing the synergies and tensions between research and policy. The complexity of responding to Covid-19 has also highlighted the potential for research to inform responses to other major societal challenges. Researchers are enthusiastic about working with policymakers to ensure that policy is underpinned by robust evidence, while many in government see the importance of strong evidence underpinning policy. However, there are also significant challenges associated with connecting the complex domains of universities and central government. [ FROM AUTHOR]

Mentoring “in the time of cholera”: perspectives, promises and challenges in the preparation of mentors for diversity in the new digital teacher learning space

This article discusses the perspectives, challenges and promises of mentoring in the new digital teacher learning space. Specifically, it focuses on recent research agendas and policy trends aimed at redefining and “reinventing” the preparation of mentors in diverse socio-cultural educational contexts across the globe. These are contextualized by zooming in to the case of mentoring in Israeli teacher education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These studies exemplify concerted efforts to create new connections between research, policy and practice in order to inform on the preparation of mentors in highly diverse and disputed socio-cultural educational contexts.

Protecting expert advice for the public: promoting safety and improved communications

The drivers of the harassment and intimidation of researchers are complex, widespread, and global in their reach and were being studied across many disciplines even before COVID-19. This policy briefing reviews some of the scholarship on this wide-ranging problem but focuses on what can be done to help ensure that Canadians fully benefit from the work of Canada's researchers while also preserving the security and safety of those researchers. It identifies policies and actions that can be implemented in the near term to gather information on the problem, better frame public research communications, and ensure that mechanisms are readily available to support researchers who are threatened. The policy briefing is concerned with researchers, but these behaviours are also harming journalists, politicians, public health communicators, and many others more fully in the public eye than researchers. Some recommendations here may help to address this wider problem.

Unmet Medical Need as a Driver for Pharmaceutical Sciences - A Survey Among Scientists.

Historical antecedents of pharmaceutical sciences are sound on product orientation based on (analytical) chemistry, drug delivery and basic pharmacology. Over the last decades we have seen a transition towards a stronger disease orientation. This raises questions on whether, how and to what extent unmet medical need (UMN) is important in priority setting, funding and impact in pharmaceutical sciences. An online survey in 2020 collected perspectives of internationally recognised pharmaceutical scientists (N = 92), mainly from academia and industry, on drivers and influencing factors in pharmaceutical sciences. The study offers a unique global perspective, demonstrating a solid command of the global needs in pharmaceutical sciences. The survey revealed that UMN is currently seen as one of the three most important drivers, also in addition to emerging trends in science and opportunities driven by collaboration. There are expectations that UMN's impact becomes more influential. This was consistent for both industry and academic respondents. The majority of respondents also indicated that anticipated lessons learned from COVID-19 will strengthen the impact of UMN on science and leadership. This is important as prioritisation of research towards UMN can address the clinical needs where needed the most.

A Public Health Research Agenda for Managing Infodemics: Methods and Results of the First WHO Infodemiology Conference.

BACKGROUND: An infodemic is an overflow of information of varying quality that surges across digital and physical environments during an acute public health event. It leads to confusion, risk-taking, and behaviors that can harm health and lead to erosion of trust in health authorities and public health responses. Owing to the global scale and high stakes of the health emergency, responding to the infodemic related to the pandemic is particularly urgent. Building on diverse research disciplines and expanding the discipline of infodemiology, more evidence-based interventions are needed to design infodemic management interventions and tools and implement them by health emergency responders. OBJECTIVE: The World Health Organization organized the first global infodemiology conference, entirely online, during June and July 2020, with a follow-up process from August to October 2020, to review current multidisciplinary evidence, interventions, and practices that can be applied to the COVID-19 infodemic response. This resulted in the creation of a public health research agenda for managing infodemics. METHODS: As part of the conference, a structured expert judgment synthesis method was used to formulate a public health research agenda. A total of 110 participants represented diverse scientific disciplines from over 35 countries and global public health implementing partners. The conference used a laddered discussion sprint methodology by rotating participant teams, and a managed follow-up process was used to assemble a research agenda based on the discussion and structured expert feedback. This resulted in a five-workstream frame of the research agenda for infodemic management and 166 suggested research questions. The participants then ranked the questions for feasibility and expected public health impact. The expert consensus was summarized in a public health research agenda that included a list of priority research questions. RESULTS: The public health research agenda for infodemic management has five workstreams: (1) measuring and continuously monitoring the impact of infodemics during health emergencies; (2) detecting signals and understanding the spread and risk of infodemics; (3) responding and deploying interventions that mitigate and protect against infodemics and their harmful effects; (4) evaluating infodemic interventions and strengthening the resilience of individuals and communities to infodemics; and (5) promoting the development, adaptation, and application of interventions and toolkits for infodemic management. Each workstream identifies research questions and highlights 49 high priority research questions. CONCLUSIONS: Public health authorities need to develop, validate, implement, and adapt tools and interventions for managing infodemics in acute public health events in ways that are appropriate for their countries and contexts. Infodemiology provides a scientific foundation to make this possible. This research agenda proposes a structured framework for targeted investment for the scientific community, policy makers, implementing organizations, and other stakeholders to consider.

Contradictions in the promotion of publishing academic and scientific journal articles, and the inability to cope with the new coronavirus (COVID-19).

BACKGROUND: Translating research into practice is a central priority within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap. The underlying aim of the NIH Roadmap is to accelerate the movement of scientific findings into practical health care provisions through translational research. MAIN TEXT: Despite the advances in health sciences, emerging infectious diseases have become more frequent in recent decades. Furthermore, emerging and reemerging pathogens have led to several global public health challenges. A question, and to an extent a concern, arises from this: Why our health care system is experiencing several challenges in encountering the coronavirus outbreak, despite the ever-growing advances in sciences, and the exponential rise in the number of published articles in the first quartile journals and even the ones among the top 1%? CONCLUSION: Two responses could be potentially provided to the above question: First, there seems to be a significant gap between our theoretical knowledge and practice. And second that many scholars and scientists publish papers only to have a longer list of publications, and therefore publishing is viewed as a personal objective, rather than for improving communities' public health.