Research Library

In a recent commentary, Baker Institute science and technology policy experts described two international court cases that aimed to define “research” — and that ultimately arrived at two different answers. “What makes this interesting is that the courts’ definition of ‘research’ was based on politics — what the court wanted the end result to be,” said Kirstin Matthews, the institute’s fellow in science and technology policy. To reach a decision prohibiting human embryonic stem cell (hESC) patents, the EU court ruled that “research” occurs in a continuum. To reach a decision supporting federal funding of stem cell research, the U.S. court ruled that “research” involves a specific project.

The success of the post-2015 U.N. development agenda will depend on a strong intergovernmental partnership for development and a system of accountability and effective monitoring.

The challenge ahead for Mexico's leaders is to determine how to dismantle an import-substitution model in its commercial, psychological and ideological dimensions, and in the process, propose a way to align Mexico's oil regime with global practices.

Latin America has 20 percent of world reserves, but only 13 percent of world production. The hydrocarbon industry’s underperformance in Latin America, despite a decade of record high oil prices, is the result of largely political challenges rather than geological limitations.

There are multiple factors involved in cancer drug pricing that have an impact on individual patients and health care policies. There is a need to (1) lower the prices of cancer drugs to allow more patients to afford them and (2) maintain sound long-term health care policies.

Watch a short video about understanding the nuclear tragedy in Japan, featuring fellows and scholars from the Science and Technology Policy Program and the Baker Institute Energy Forum.

Women’s empowerment is a multi-dimensional process of achieving basic capabilities, legal rights, and participation in key social, economic, political and cultural domains. This paper offers a set of 44 indicators for measuring women's empowerment.