Databases of research resources mapping and their corporate counterpart

The idea of breaking processes down into small steps has been around for a long time through lean manufacturing. Globalization associated with lean manufacturing is also not new since companies like IBM have been implementing this as a strategy for many years. The next and expected step in this chain of events is that databases containing maps of local resources would allow managers to make optimal decisions on where to allocate the different portions of the process to areas with the best cost-benefit ratio. As usual corporations are taking the lead in this initiative with the Cluster Mapping Project, which is described in a recent interview with Michael Porter at HBS as:

"Too often corporations decide to locate facilities based solely on cost savings. And that's shortsighted, argues Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter. Instead, business leaders should look for locations that gather industry-specific resources together in one "cluster" (think Silicon Valley or the Napa wine country) that can lead to competitive advantage. Porter's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness has just introduced a new database tool to help corporations and policy makers pinpoint these clusters, which number forty-one in the United States."

This concept is definitely in line with the idea of Biomedical Research Innovation Language (BRIL), which provides mapping for research resources across institutions. Research groups have value associated with providing information about their own research resources since this information will allow them to more easily establish collaborations that will lead to cutting edge innovation, having publications and research funding as operational endpoints.

What comes after that? Probably the establishment of mechanisms that will provide decision support on the establishment of links across research groups, intelligent agents being one among many options. The question now becomes: What underlying structure is required to enable an adequate decision support so that the connection across research sites is facilitated?