Dr Michael Hopkins

photo of Michael Hopkins
Post:Senior Lecturer (SPRU - Science and Technology Policy Research, Business and Management)
Location:Jubilee Building 385
Email:M.M.Hopkins@sussex.ac.uk

Telephone numbers
Internal:7690
UK:(01273) 877690
International:+44 1273 877690
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Biography

Michael M Hopkins, BSc MSc, DPhil (Sussex) 
 
Michael is a biologist with subsequent degrees in Technology and Innovation Management (M. Sc. with Distinction), and Science and Technology Policy (D.Phil). He currently is principle investigator and co-investigator on interdisciplinary research projects employing mixed method approaches to undestand innovation processes in complex inter-organsational contexts. Michael's projects often focus on the study of biomedical innovation systems, whether for products (e.g. drugs) or services (e.g. diagnostic testing), which tend to involve networks of organisations spanning the public and private sectors.
 
He has published widely in Natural Science and Social Science journals on the role of intellectual property, regulation and finance in innovation (including in Nature, Nature Biotechnology and Research Policy - the top journals in their respective fields).
 
In recent years Michael has worked on a range of research projects funded by the European Commission's framework programmes, Joint Research Centre and the European Research Council, the US National Science Foundation, the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts, Department of Trade and Industry, Human Genetics Commission and Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property. He has also consulted in the bio/pharmaceuticals sector and for international organisations including Europa Bio and the OECD. From 2004-2006 Michael was a Research Fellow of the Economic & Social Research Council and Medical Research Council.
 
Current and recent research projects have focused on:
 
- The use of foresight programmes by developmental states to inform policies for growth.  
- Open-innovation/ user-centric innovation in engineering consultancies.
- The complex role of DNA-patents in biomedical innovation, especially genetic testing.
- The 'myth of the biotech revolution' in drug productivity.
- Patterns of networking associated with the emergence of new technologies in stemcells and diagnostics.
- The financing of R&D for drug discovery in small firms
 
Michael lectures on Innovation in Bioscience and Medicine (for the School fo Life Sciences), Managing Change, Technology and Innovation Systems, and Managing Intellectual Property (for the School of Business Management and Economics).
 

Role

Senior Lecturer in Managing Change / Biomedical Innovation

·          The evolution of medical technologies - particularly genetic testing technologies (cytogenetics, molecular genetics and biochemical genetics) and therapeutic platforms such as monoclonal antibodies, and their journey from research into practice.

 ·          Capabilities, learning and knowledge management in innovative organisations and networks  - including pharmaceutical/ biotech firms, engineering consultancies, and their associated project networks and learning networks.

 ·          Industrial dynamics, strategy and competitiveness in biotechnology/ pharmaceuticals – including firm life cycles (spin-out, financing, growth, acquisition) and alliance formation.

 ·          Intellectual property rights in biotechnology – particularly trends in nucleotide (DNA/RNA) sequence patenting and organisations’ strategies for gaining and exploiting patents. 

Theoretical/ conceptual research interests
 
 
 
  • Frameworks for modelling the evolution of technology
    particularly those from STS including: The promise of technology and power in stakeholder networks – frameworks for assessing the promise of technology and the impact of expectations and the power of groups in the shaping of technology; Understanding the role of risk in shaping networks that support technological change (e.g. in genetic testing services and engineering services).

 

  • Organisational learning and development of capabilities especially learning in the project based firm, and knowledge management systems.
  • National systems of innovation – especially financial support and risk-regulation.
  • The use of mixed methods for rich and informative problem-centred empirical studies in particular using hybrid qualiative and quantiative methods.

 

Since 1999 Michael Hopkins has run a third year undergraduate course for Life Science undergraduates and lectured on a range of subjects related to Innovation in Bioscience and Medicine (reading list available on request).
 
Other teaaching interests:
  • Strategy (U/G)
  • Managing Change (U/G)
  • Technology and Innovation Systems (MSc/ U/G)
  • Managing Intellectual Property (MSc)
  • Understanding the Business Environment (MBA module)

Supervisory interests for D.Phil and M.Sc projects:

See theoretical and empirical themes outlined above

Hopkins, Michael, Crane, Philippa, Nightingale, Paul and Baden-Fuller, Charles (2013) Buying big into biotech: the role of scale in the financing and industrial dynamics of K biotech SMEs: 1980-2009. Industrial and Corporate Change. ISSN 0960-6491 (In Press)

Rafols, Ismael, Hopkins, Michael M, Hoekman, Jarno, Siepel, Josh, O'Hare, Alice, Perianes-Rodríguez, Antonio and Nightingale, Paul (2012) Big pharma, little science? A bibliometric perspective on big pharma's R&D decline. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. ISSN 0040-1625

Hopkins, Michael and Hogarth, Stuart (2012) Biomarker patents for diagnostics: problem or solution? Nature Biotechnology, 30 (6). pp. 498-500. ISSN 1087-0156

Hogarth, Stuart, Hopkins, Michael M and Rodriguez, Victor (2012) A molecular monopoly? HPV testing, the Pap smear and the molecularisation of cervical cancer in the USA. Sociology of Health and Illness, 34 (2). pp. 234-250.

Nightingale, Paul, Baden-Fuller, Charles and Hopkins, Michael M (2011) Projects, Project Capabilities and Project Organisations. In: Advances in Strategic Management. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Hopkins, Michael M, Tidd, Joe, Nightingale, Paul and Miller, Roger (2011) Generative and degenerative interactions: Positive and negative dynamics of open, user-centric innovation in technology and engineering consultancies. R&D Management, 41 (1). pp. 44-60. ISSN 0033-6807

Hopkins, Michael M, Martin, Paul A, Nightingale, Paul, Kraft, Alison and Mahdi, Surya (2007) The myth of the biotech revolution: an assessment of technological, clinical and organisational change. Research Policy, 36 (4). pp. 566-589. ISSN 0048-7333

Hopkins, Michael M, Mahdi, Surya, Patel, Pari and Thomas, Sandy M (2007) DNA patenting: the end of an era? Nature Biotechnology, 25 (2). pp. 185-187. ISSN 1087-0156

Hopkins, Michael M, Ibarreta, Dolores, Gaisser, Sibylle, Enzing, Christien M, Nightingale, Paul and et al, (2006) Putting pharmacogenetics into practice. Nature Biotechnology, 24 (4). pp. 403-410. ISSN 1087-0156

Hopkins, Michael M and Nightingale, Paul (2006) Strategic risk-management using complementary assets: organizational capabilities and the commercialization of human genetic testing in the UK. Research Policy, 35 (3). pp. 355-374. ISSN 0048-7333

Woelderink, A, Ibarreta, D, Hopkins, M M and Rodriguez-Cerezo, E (2006) The current clinical practice of pharmacogenetic testing in Europe: TPMT and HER2 as case studies. Pharmacogenomics Journal , 6 (1). pp. 3-7. ISSN 1470-269X

Hopkins, Michael M and Nightingale, Paul (2004) Risk management and the commercialization of human genetic testing in the UK. In: The Economic Dynamics of Modern Biotechnology. Edward Elgar, pp 135-166. ISBN 9781845427900

Thomas, S M, Hopkins, M M and Brady, M (2002) Shares in the human genome: the future of patenting DNA. Nature Biotechnology, 20. pp. 1185-1188.