Between 1967 and 1974 the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, underwent a major transformation. Faced with a declining workload under the atomic energy programme, the laboratory has succeeded, not without difficulties, in defining and implementing a new mission to...

This paper begins with a brief review of Metcalfe's evolutionary economics as presented in the Graz Schumpeter Lectures and then moves onto Piaget's notion of and extension into what could be called cognitive phenocopy. Here, the main elements of Piaget's theories are introduced and related...

In this keynote address to the 2004 IMHE General Conference in Paris, the author tried to lay out the profound changes that are taking place in society. These changes give rise to a new context in which institutions have to make decisions. Three principle elements characterise the new context: a...

Dans l’allocution principale qu’il a prononcée à l’ouverture de la Conférence générale 2004 de l’IMHE, à Paris, l’auteur a tenté d’exposer les changements qui interviennent dans la société. Ces changements définissent un nouveau contexte, cadre des choix et décisions pour...

This paper outlines the structure of the institutions involved in scientific and technological development in France. It points to new trends in French marine policy, and gives details of the country's offshore petroleum technology and nodule mining.