The Role of Scientific Support Staff in the Creation and Dissemination of Knowledge Within and Across Core Infrastructural Facilities

科学支持人员在核心基础设施内部和之间的知识创造和传播中的作用

• 批准号: 2151698
• 负责人: Stephen Barley
• 金额: $ 13.98万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Barbara
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-04-01 至 2024-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2151698&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Role; Scientific; Support; Staff; Creation

Shared instrumentation facilities, or “core facilities” have become increasingly important to science. Core facilities are often seen as places where scientists share knowledge with each other around common tools, advancing fields and sparking interdisciplinary collaborations. We know, however, that scientists often hesitate to share knowledge about ongoing work— particularly with close peers or competitors— because they seek credit for their own work and want to be the first to publish findings. While prior research has considered how scientists navigate tensions between openness and secrecy in their work, this research has largely overlooked the role that scientific support staff— those who maintain and develop scientific instrumentation and technique— play in diffusing valuable technical knowledge among scientists. This study examines the role of scientific support staff in two core facilities through a fifteen-month ethnographic study. By documenting how scientific support staff in core facilities create and disseminate knowledge among potentially competing researchers, we hope to inform decision makers who seek to increase the productivity of shared research infrastructures. By explicating the various tasks, skills, competencies, and specialties that characterize scientific support staff’s work, our study should also suggest how universities and core facilities might implement better reward structures and careers for scientific staff, thereby strengthening the nation’s STEM workforce.This study examines the role of scientific support staff in core facilities through an ethnographic study of two university nanofabrication facilities, facilities that provide cleanrooms and semiconductor fabrication equipment to a regional community of researchers. Our goals are: (1) to explore in depth the kind of knowledge that scientific support staff in core facilities possess, (2) to document the ways in which (and the points at which) the contributions of staff facilitate the progress of users’ research projects, (3) to explore whether, and if so how and how frequently, support staff disseminate knowledge in ways that counter the deleterious effects of secrecy among users, and (4) to document whether and how knowledge developed by support staff in one core facility is disseminated to other core facilities. Our overall aim is to develop a deeper understanding of how science benefits from shared resources in core facilities by better understanding the role of scientific support staff in creating and disseminating knowledge within and across core facilities. The research will contribute to several fields including science studies, organization studies, public policy and the sociology of work and occupations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

共享仪器设施或“核心设施”对科学来说变得越来越重要。核心设施通常被视为科学家围绕通用工具共享知识、推进领域发展和激发跨学科合作的地方。分享有关正在进行的工作的知识——特别是与亲密的同行或竞争对手——因为他们为自己的工作寻求荣誉，并希望成为第一个发表研究结果的人。研究在很大程度上忽视了科学支持人员（维护和开发科学仪器和技术的人员）在向科学家传播有价值的技术知识方面发挥着作用。本研究通过为期十五个月的人种学研究，考察了科学支持人员在两个核心设施中的作用。在核心设施中，在潜在竞争的研究人员之间创造和传播知识，我们希望通过阐明科学支持人员工作、我们的研究的各种任务、技能、能力和专业，为寻求提高共享研究基础设施生产力的决策者提供信息。还应该建议大学和核心设施如何为科学人员实施更好的奖励结构和职业，从而加强国家的 STEM 劳动力队伍。本研究通过对两所大学纳米制造设施（提供洁净室的设施）进行人种学研究，考察了科学支持人员在核心设施中的作用我们的目标是：（1）深入探索核心设施中的科学支持人员所拥有的知识，（2）记录这些知识的方式（以及要点）。 ）工作人员的贡献促进用户研究项目的进展情况，(3) 探讨支持人员是否以抵消用户之间保密的有害影响的方式传播知识，如果是，如何以及如何频繁地传播知识，以及 (4) 记录用户是否以及如何开发知识我们的总体目标是通过更好地了解科学支持人员在核心设施内部和跨核心设施创造和传播知识方面的作用，更深入地了解科学如何从核心设施的共享资源中受益。该研究将做出贡献。涵盖科学研究、组织研究、公共政策以及工作和职业社会学等多个领域。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。