Managing Community: The Organization and Management of Federal Research Funding Agencies

管理社区：联邦研究资助机构的组织和管理

• 批准号: 1158765
• 负责人: Michael Piore
• 金额: $ 25万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-06-15 至 2015-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1158765&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Managing; Community; Organization; Management; Federal

This project investigates the organization and management of three Federal agencies that support scientific research to identify the key differences among the agencies and how they impact the type of research that is conducted, the development of communities of interest, and research outcomes. Preliminary research suggests there is significant variation in understanding, within both the agency personnel managing the funding process and the scientific community of researchers that receive funding, of what critical factors define each agency and influence research outcomes. The project examines and compares funding activities at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It also includes an exploratory component focused on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and gathers some observations about other Federal funding agencies that have supported NSF-, DARPA, and NIH-funded researchers.Intellectual Merit A major contribution of this research is to advance understanding of the impact on funding decisions of the role of the program manager (or project manager), the degree of decision-making autonomy at this level of the organization, and the way in which that autonomy is managed and directed. The project draws heavily on the literature on "street-level" bureaucracy in the public sector and on the decentralization of authority in large corporate organizations of the private sector. In this, it departs from the emphasis in the recent literature on the management of the public sector by recognizing the role of the norms of different communities (e.g., the scientific community; the professional community of program managers, the military community) and the way in which the evolution of these norms can be guided and directed by various management approaches. The research is based on interviews with current and recent funding agency staff, and with researchers who have applied (successfully or unsuccessfully) to the agencies for funding. It also draws on a confidential database from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on all applications for funding submitted within a fifteen year period, linked to data on patents, licensing and scholarly publications related to federal funded research projects.Broader ImpactsThe project is designed to help policy makers and administrators evaluate the design of federal research programs, understand how they relate to each other in the eyes of the researchers who they fund and whose behavior they seek to influence, and better identify the levers for effectively managing research and development. It will also provide a preliminary model for attempting to evaluate the impact of scientific investments. Finally, it provides recommendations regarding ways to improve managerial performance, an analytical template for programs beyond those that are the direct focus of the study, and contribute to the literature on public sector management more broadly.

该项目调查了支持科学研究的三个联邦机构的组织和管理，以确定这些机构之间的主要差异以及它们如何影响所进行的研究类型、利益群体的发展和研究成果。初步研究表明，管理资助流程的机构人员和接受资助的研究人员的科学界对于定义每个机构并影响研究结果的关键因素的理解存在显着差异。该项目检查并比较了美国国家科学基金会 (NSF) 和国防高级研究计划局 (DARPA) 的资助活动。它还包括一个以美国国立卫生研究院 (NIH) 为重点的探索性部分，并收集了对支持 NSF、DARPA 和 NIH 资助的研究人员的其他联邦资助机构的一些观察结果。 学术价值 这项研究的一个主要贡献是加深对项目经理（或项目经理）的角色对资助决策的影响、组织这一级别的决策自主权程度以及方式的理解。 在其中管理和指导自主权。该项目大量借鉴了有关公共部门“街头”官僚机构和私营部门大型企业组织权力下放的文献。在这一点上，它与最近文献中对公共部门管理的强调不同，它认识到不同群体（例如科学界、项目管理者的专业界、军事界）规范的作用以及各种管理方法可以指导和指导这些规范的演变的方式。该研究基于对当前和最近的资助机构工作人员以及已向该机构申请（成功或不成功）资助的研究人员的采访。它还利用了麻省理工学院的一个机密数据库，其中包含十五年内提交的所有资助申请，并与与联邦资助的研究项目相关的专利、许可和学术出版物的数据相关联。 更广泛的影响该项目旨在帮助政策制定者和管理人员评估联邦研究项目的设计，了解它们在他们资助的研究人员和他们寻求影响的研究人员眼中如何相互关联，并更好地识别 有效管理研发的杠杆。它还将为试图评估科学投资的影响提供一个初步模型。最后，它提供了有关提高管理绩效的方法的建议，为超出研究直接重点的项目提供了分析模板，并为更广泛的公共部门管理文献做出了贡献。