Economic and Scientific Effects of Federal Investment in Chemical Sciences Research

联邦投资化学科学研究的经济和科学影响

• 批准号: 1064218
• 负责人: Donna Ginther
• 金额: $ 49.96万
• 依托单位: University of Kansas Center for Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-05-01 至 2016-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1064218&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Economic; Scientific; Effects; Federal; Investment

In 2009 the U.S. Federal government provided nearly $33 billion in funding for university performed research and development (R&D), accounting for about 60 percent of the total funding for university R&D in that year. This project examines the impact of this federal funding for university R&D in chemistry on a range of significant economic and scientific outcomes, including the production of new scientific knowledge and how this knowledge in turn affects local economies. The project uses a two-track research strategy to shed light on the impacts of federal funding on scientific productivity and local economic development. In the first track, we analyze historical data on research funding at the 150 most-funded institutions using a dynamic panel estimation framework. We measure scientific outcomes via the number of doctoral students trained, the quantity of publications produced, the scholarly impact of these publications as reflected in the number of citations they receive, and the number of patents awarded; economic outcomes are measured using average wage levels in the community surrounding each institution. The significant policy-induced variations in research funding over the last two decades are exploited as a natural experiment to obtain causal estimates of the marginal impact of increased funding on these different measures of impact.In the second track, survey data will be collected from investigators in chemistry departments at the institutions being studied to gain insight about the ways in which institutional characteristics, attitudes and behaviors mediate the effects of federal funding. Combining this survey data from research chemists with the overall analysis of spending impact from the first track will yield insights specific to the effects of chemical-science investments that can then be compared to the impacts of non-chemistry spending. Broader Impacts:The project will develop quantitative measures of the impact of federal funding on scientific and economic outcomes and connect them to different institutional characteristics at the universities studied. Estimates of these impacts can be used to identify specific institutional characteristics that either increase or reduce the impact of additional funding, and thereby evaluate the most (and least) productive areas for incremental funding. For federal officials involved in setting science policy and allocating scarce taxpayer funds, these estimates will help support choices that maximize the scientific impact of their investments. For university officials administering these research institutions, these estimates will allow them to better understand how institutional policies affect desired institutional outcomes and consequently support their ability to make better choices about institutional priorities.

2009年，美国联邦政府为大学提供了近330亿美元的资金（研发），约占当年大学研发总资金的60％。 该项目探讨了该联邦资金对化学对大学研发的影响对一系列重要的经济和科学成果的影响，包括生产新的科学知识以及这些知识如何影响地方经济。该项目采用两轨研究策略来阐明联邦资金对科学生产力和当地经济发展的影响。 在第一条轨道中，我们使用动态面板估计框架分析了150家资助机构的研究资金的历史数据。 我们通过受过培训的博士生数量，生产的出版物数量，这些出版物的学术影响，反映在他们收到的引用数量以及授予专利数量的情况下来衡量科学成果；经济成果是使用每个机构周围社区中平均工资水平来衡量的。 在过去的二十年中，大量政策引起的研究资金变化被用作自然实验，以获得因果关系估计的因果估计，增加了资金对这些不同影响措施的边际影响。在第二轨道中，将从研究机构中的化学部门的调查数据中收集研究人员，从而扎根于构成的机构特征和行为构成行为和行为，以促进行为和行为。 将研究化学家的调查数据与对第一轨支出影响的总体分析相结合，将产生特定于化学科学投资影响的见解，然后将其与非化学支出的影响进行比较。 更广泛的影响：该项目将制定定量衡量联邦资金对科学和经济成果的影响，并将其与所研究大学的不同机构特征联系起来。 这些影响的估计值可用于确定特定的机构特征，以增加或减少额外资金的影响，从而评估最多（最少）的生产力领域的增量资金。 对于参与制定科学政策并分配稀缺纳税人资金的联邦官员，这些估计将有助于支持选择最大化其投资的科学影响的选择。 对于管理这些研究机构的大学官员，这些估计将使他们能够更好地理解机构政策如何影响所需的机构成果，从而支持他们对机构优先事项做出更好选择的能力。