Hoch says that while problem resolution was not as great a factor as some of the other five elements, one common thread emerged from the research: "A person stepped up to the plate and figured out how to solve the problem".
More than 80 countries around the world, including the US and China, have stepped up research and development of "killer robots" and other non-human forms of warfare.
In the wake of the 2001 anthrax attacks, the federal government stepped up research involving biowarfare threats, like anthrax, Ebola and many other of the world's deadliest pathogens.
As a result, research efforts have been stepped up with the ultimate goal to provide new, more effective and safer antimicrobial treatments that will overcome the resistance problem.
DECC stepped up research on the issue after a paper by a US academic showed that burning whole trees would produce more emissions than burning coal, by the time transport emissions are taken into account.
Since then, coordinators of the project have stepped up their research and are actively placing thousands of genes that have been discovered into the public domain.
Bhan hopes the Supreme Court will not send the wrong message at a time when GM research, he argues, should be stepped up to meet challenges to food productivity posed by climate change and a rising population.
For the most part, the public discussion around this has centered around pharmaceutical research, but as tech companies like Google and other tech giants fund more research (and step up their own lobbying campaigns), it's worth discussing how this influences policy research, too.
Times Higher Education also reports that the Russell Group, which represents some of the largest research universities in the United Kingdom, has stepped up its attack on the latest RAE, claiming that there were different standards used in judging scientific research and research in the arts.
