The Rate and Direction of Agricultural Research at US Land Grant Universities

美国赠地大学农业研究的比例和方向

• 批准号: 0424772
• 负责人: Jeremy Foltz
• 金额: $ 15.12万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-09-01 至 2007-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0424772&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Rate; Direction; Agricultural; Research; US

The overall goal of this research is to develop an improved understanding of universityresource allocation in agricultural research by examining the ethics and values associatedwith research outputs (articles, patents, and doctorates), potential changes in thedirection of and audience for scientific researchers (e.g., basic vs applied, firms forlicensing vs broader public dissemination), and the observable quality of the research (interms of citations, licensing revenues, or other measures). The project will examine theresource allocation process at the university level as well as at the level of individualresearchers within the agricultural and life science colleges of U.S. Land Grantuniversities (LGU).At the university level, the project is built on a 20-year panel database on universityresearch inputs, outputs, and patent revenues that two of the principal investigators(Barham and Foltz) have developed over the past 4 years. At the individual level, theproject will undertake a major survey of university researchers at LGUs asking themdetailed questions about their research direction, outputs, grant sources, stakeholders,and attitudes. This survey of scientists follows up on a previous survey done by anotherof the principal investigators in the mid-1990s (Buttel) as well as an earlier effort byLacy and Busch in 1979.The research methods in this project advance the literature on academic patenting in anumber of important ways. First, the theoretical framework, "motivation crowding,"provides a novel framework for understanding how monetary incentives affect scientists'ethics, values, and research choices and the framework's use advances the theory byproviding an empirical test of its propositions. Second, by building on past datacollection efforts, this work will have both cross-section and time-series informationthat can advance our understanding of scientist ethics, values, and research choices.Third, this work will be able to integrate the scientist data with university levelinformation across time and universities. Fourth, by having an interdisciplinary researchteam, this project will be able to combine the ethics and values concerns of sociologywith the data and theory driven analytic tools of economists.This project investigates a series of regulatory and legal changes that appear to behaving a major impact on the way in which research is done at agricultural colleges inLGUs. The incentives created by university patenting are changing the ethics and valuesof scientists, the types of projects they choose, the outlets for their research, and howthat research gets disseminated to the public (e.g., patents or open publications). Giventhe central role of public sector research to generating new agricultural technologiesover the last century, these changes in LGU research focus and scientist values may havesignificant impacts on the long-term sustainability of US agriculture (Goldberger andButtel, 2001).A deeper understanding of resource allocation and outcomes in university research cancontribute toward the design of better policies and incentive structures to promoteagricultural and life science research at LGUs, including efficiency and equity outcomes.Findings from this study will be presented to key decision makers at Land Grantuniversities, in state legislatures, and to interdisciplinary audiences.

这项研究的总体目标是通过检查与研究成果(文章、专利和博士学位)相关的伦理和价值观、科学研究人员的方向和受众的潜在变化(例如，基础与应用、许可公司与更广泛的公共传播)以及研究的可观察质量(引文、许可收入或其他指标)，来更好地理解大学在农业研究中的资源分配。该项目将考察大学层面的资源分配过程，以及美国土地赠款大学(LGU)农业和生命科学学院内个人研究人员的层面。在大学层面，该项目建立在两位主要研究人员(Barham和Foltz)在过去4年开发的关于大学研究投入、产出和专利收入的20年面板数据库的基础上。在个人层面，该项目将对路易斯安那州立大学的大学研究人员进行一次重大调查，询问他们关于研究方向、成果、拨款来源、利益相关者和态度的详细问题。这项对科学家的调查是对另一位主要研究人员在20世纪90年代中期(Buttel)以及Lacy和Busch在1979年所做的较早的调查的后续。本项目的研究方法在许多重要方面推进了关于学术专利的文献。首先，理论框架“动机拥挤”为理解货币激励如何影响科学家的道德、价值观和研究选择提供了一个新的框架，该框架的使用通过对其命题进行实证检验来推进该理论。其次，通过在过去数据收集工作的基础上，这项工作将拥有横截面和时间序列信息，这些信息可以促进我们对科学家伦理、价值观和研究选择的理解。第三，这项工作将能够将科学家数据与跨时间和跨大学的大学水平信息整合在一起。第四，通过拥有一个跨学科的研究团队，该项目将能够将社会学的伦理和价值观关切与经济学家的数据和理论驱动的分析工具结合起来。该项目调查了一系列监管和法律变化，这些变化似乎对路易斯安那州立大学农业学院的研究方式产生了重大影响。大学专利创造的激励正在改变科学家的道德和价值观，他们选择的项目类型，他们研究的渠道，以及研究向公众传播的方式(例如，专利或公开出版物)。考虑到过去一个世纪公共部门研究在产生新农业技术方面的核心作用，路易斯安那州立大学研究重点和科学家价值观的这些变化可能会对美国农业的长期可持续性产生重大影响(Goldberger和Buttel，2001)。对大学研究中的资源分配和结果的深入理解可以有助于设计更好的政策和激励结构，以促进路易斯安那州立大学的农业和生命科学研究，包括效率和公平成果。这项研究的结果将提交给土地授予大学的关键决策者、州立法机构和跨学科的受众。