Overview

Extractive industries—including the mining and oil & gas energy sectors—have become more technology-intensive over the years, and the pace of their technological change is only accelerating as the years role on. Despite this increasing importance on technology, however, the companies, government agencies, and stakeholders connected to these industries frequently struggle with how to manage these kinds of change.

This MOOC will give participants an awareness of how innovation and R&D happen within these sectors and, by teaching them how to apply a broad range of tools and fresh ideas from other industries that have historically been more comfortable with technology, shows them how they can get better results from innovation-related activities.

In so doing, participants from these industries will become more adept at inventing and deploying innovations, thereby enabling them to make significant progress towards SDGs 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) and 13 (Climate Action).

This course is for:

Anyone who is connected to the innovation-related aspects of their organization, who works in decision-making roles that are frequently impacted by the emergence of new technologies, or who wants to play a role in creating a more innovative environment within their business, government agency, or stakeholder group related to the extractive industries.

Syllabus

Module 1 - Innovation and New Technologies within the Extractive Industries : The Big Picture

Chapter 1: Background
Chapter 2: Sources and Type of Innovation
Chapter 3: Where Do Ideas for New Technologies Come From?
Chapter 4: Try, Try Again!

Module 2 - Technology Standards and Design Dominance

Chapter 1: How Dominant Designs Get Selectied
Chapter 2: Examples of Dominant Designs Emerging in the Extractive Industries
Chapter 3: When Dominant Designs Can Be Unhelpful
Chapter 4: How Dominant Designs Could Help the Extractive Industries
Chapter 5: Does a Dominant Design Always Emerge?

Module 3 - Timing of Entry

Chapter 1: Is It Better to Be a First Mover or a Fast Follower?
Chapter 2: Why are the Extractive Industries So Slow to Adopt New Technologies?
Chapter 3: Factors Influencing Optimal Timing of Entry

Module 4 - Innovation Strategy

Chapter 1: The Relationship Between an Organization's Overarching Strategy and Its Innovation Strategy

Module 5 - Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) and Other Tools for Tracking Progress

Chapter 1: A Typical Dashboard of a R&D Organization
Chapter 2: Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs)

Module 6 - Technology Valuation

Chapter 1: Calculating the Value of Innovations: Motivations and Basic Approaches
Chapter 2: A Five-Point Framework for Calculating an Innovation’s Value in the Extractive Industries
Chapter 3: Interview with Paul Rudenko, Shell’s Lead Technology Economist
Chapter 4: Articulating Qualitative Value

Module 7 - The Future