Dec 2014 | INGENIO [CSIC-UPV] - Instituto de Gestión de la Innovación y del Conocimiento

Matthew Wallace

Matthew has been with us for a year until September 2014. Here is a summary of his experience at the institute, in his own words:

If it weren’t for an Australian colleague, I would try to pass myself off as the member of INGENIO furthest from ‘home’. Perhaps I can settle for the title of ‘having undergone the largest temperature change’ (in the positive direction) through my move to Valencia. But perhaps some more relevant information about myself, and how I wound up in Valencia, is required. I don’t fit very well into ‘disciplinary’ categories, nor professional categories. My training is in physics, science and technology studies and history of science; my doctoral thesis focused on the development of new fields of research on a national level (specifically, atmospheric science in Canada). Before coming to INGENIO, I had been working for several years as an S&T policy advisor within the Canadian government. So overall, my main interest—in a professional or academic setting—is in science policy, which involves first understanding the dynamics of science, or how it ‘works’ in terms of social networks, institutions, etc. But the term ‘science policy’ also implies a view of a science system that is not insulated from the rest of society. From economic growth to sound regulations, there is a continuous interplay between science and society, which is why ‘directing’ it through policy is has increasingly been recognized an important endeavour in recent decades.
Due to the nature of the problem, I think research in this area is inherently multidisciplinary and benefits from focusing on ‘real-world’ problems, hence part of the interest in coming to INGENIO as a more ‘applied’ research institute. I was also drawn by a great project led by Ismael Rafols on biomedical research. The project, which sought to shed light on how research is funded, was relevant both in terms of existing scholarship and in terms of potential applications by funding organizations. I was interested in looking at how public research is managed, by combining qualitative and quantitative techniques. Having extensively used scientometric approaches to ‘measure’ science in the past, I think new (big) data and analytical methods offer a wealth of possibilities for science policy scholars, but they need to be tampered by a healthy dose of criticism, a view shared by Ismael.
But aside from the research itself, INGENIO has been a great place to make new connections and exchange ideas with a diverse group of colleagues. In terms of unintended ‘spillovers’, I learned more than I ever wanted to know about econometrics (and a good deal of new jargon to go with it), got first-hand exposure to new Spanish and European research systems (truly fascinating for the science policy nerd in me), was exposed to a new—and some might say exotic—meal schedule, only tampered by taking advantage of the early ‘guiri-lunch’ option for foreigners. And then there are the subtleties of paella that only a stay in Valencia can impart…

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