EdWeek’s brief profile on John Q. Easton, head of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), drives home the importance and renewed focus on relevance and usefulness in education research. Over the years, we have collected vast sums of education data about students, teachers, schools, districts, states, and countries.

Survival in the global economy often requires responding to global crises such as HIV/AIDS – particularly for the pharmaceutical industry.   Pharmaceutical companies striving to profitably deliver products that solve health problems will require continued creativity and innovation to survive.  Maintaining a healthy balance of profitability and social impact can be challenging for many industries.   This dynamic tension between delivering profits and achieving social impact is a dilemma highlighted in the pharmaceutical industry’s response to the global HIV/AIDS crisis.   

Investment in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is growing and becoming increasingly high-profile in both the development and investment fields.  A report released earlier this year by the World Resources Institute reveals that of the 20 leading SME investment funds, more than half were established after 2004.  While the majority of these funds have little name recognition outside of the SME funding community, big names are entering the market.