An Analytical Synthesis of Empirical Research on U.S. University-Industry and Federal Laboratory-Industry Research Cooperation

在过去的二十年里，经济和政治力量共同努力，增加了美国合作研究活动的数量和强度。作为联邦机构和基金会资助的研究成果，也出现了大量的文献，试图对这些活动进行分类、记录、监测、分析和评估。迄今为止，还没有重大的努力，从分析和政策导向的角度对这些文献进行批判性的综合。这个项目将开始解决这一需求。为了使最初的工作易于管理，审查将限于基于原始或档案数据的实证研究，而不是理论、规范或政策分析；研究美国机构间的研究合作；已发表的或至少现成的报告和研究；以及最近十年出版或印刷的材料。主要目的是从实证文献中提取一组基于使用不同方法或措施的多项研究的与政策相关的结果。研究者将准备符合纳入标准的所有研究的结构化摘要。这些将包括一个可通过关键字访问的电子数据库，并将成为这项研究的主要产出之一。结果还将包括对美国合作研究文献的批判性综合，围绕政策和研究界都感兴趣的政策问题进行组织。审查将处理方法和测量问题，并得出一组结论，说明从总体研究中了解到的情况、每个结论的信任程度以及原因。

Over the past two decades, economic and political forces worked together to increase the amount and intensity of cooperative research activity in the U.S. A sizable literature, attempting to classify, document, monitor, analyze, and evaluate these activities, has also appeared, as outputs from research sponsored by federal agencies and foundations. To date there has been no significant effort to perform a critical synthesis of this literature from and analytical, policy-oriented perspective. This project will begin to address this need. To make the initial effort manageable, the review will be restricted to empirical studies based on original or archival data, rather than theoretical, normative, or policy analyses; studies of research cooperation among U.S. institutions; published or at least readily available reports and studies; and materials published or printed in the last ten years. The primary purpose is to extract from the empirical literature a set of policy-relevant results based on multiple studies using different methodologies or measures. The investigators will prepare structured summaries of all the studies that meet the criteria for inclusion. These will comprise an electronic data base that can be accessed via keywords, and will be one of the primary outputs from the study. The results will also include a critical synthesis of the literature on cooperative research in the U.S., organized around policy questions of interest to both the policy and research communities. The review will address methodological and measurement issues and produce a set of conclusions about what has been learned from the studies collectively, what level of confidence can be placed on each conclusion, and why.