EAGER: A Relational Model for Understanding the Use of Research in the Policy Process

SES-1441446 Roberta Spalter-RothKelly JoyceGeorge Mason UniversityThe National Science Foundation支持一系列政策相关主题的研究。 例如，其社会科学研究组合包括教育和学习，移民，人口，恐怖主义，环境，灾害，犯罪和刑事司法，婚姻和家庭，社会福利，就业和职业，军事，健康和行为，以及与城市和城市地区相关的问题（例如，无家可归、贫困以及城市和经济发展）。 这些研究有可能为国内和国际政策、公共辩论和实践提供信息，有些研究确实如此，但以间接和不透明的方式。 PI计划进一步概念化和测试一种新的方法，一种更好地捕捉社会科学研究如何纳入政策过程和实践的概念模型。 该项目是变革性的，因为它没有假设一个“理想化”的，但简单化的因果模型，认为理所当然的政策制定者将阅读学术期刊上的研究，并采用他们的方法和发现来制定新的政策。 研究人员提出了一个基于关系，战略，活动，网络和过程的关系模型，而不是从研究开始并以新的公共政策结束的线性模型，这些模型导致在各种政策位置使用社会科学研究用于政策目的。 为了测试和完善这种关系概念模型，PI将召集一个跨学科的社会科学家小组，他们将提供成功（和不那么成功）的社会科学研究人员的案例研究，这些研究人员的工作已经（或没有）进入政策过程。 这些案例研究将被用来产生一个成功途径的精炼模型，在这个模型中，社会科学研究可以并且确实为公共政策提供了信息。更广泛的影响这个项目具有潜在的变革性，因为该项目不是研究研究对政策的影响的“理想化”偶然模型，而是使用研究人员经验的案例研究来为人际关系，网络，以及导致在各种政策情况下使用或未能使用社会科学研究的社会过程。 研究结果的广泛传播有可能增加社会科学家的数量，他们更愿意考虑（1）学术研究界以外的研究和发现;（2）更具体地说，社会科学研究结果如何为公共政策和实践提供信息。

SES-1441446Roberta Spalter-RothKelly JoyceGeorge Mason UniversityThe National Science Foundation supports research on a range of policy-relevant topics. For example, its social science research portfolio includes projects on education and learning, immigrations, demography, terrorism, the environment, disasters, crime and criminal justice, marriage and family, social welfare, employment and occupations, the military, health and behavior, and issues associated with cities and urban areas (e.g., homelessness, poverty, and urban and economic development). These studies have the potential to inform domestic and international policy, public debates and practice and some do, but in indirect and non-transparent ways. The PIs plans to further conceptualize and test a new approach, a conceptual model that better captures how social science research is brought into the policy process and practice. The project is transformative in that it does not assume an "idealized," but simplistic, causal model that takes for granted that policymakers will read research in scholarly journals and adopt their methods and findings to craft new policy. Rather than a linear model that starts with the research and ends with new public policy, the researchers propose a relational model based on relationships, strategies, activities, networks, and processes that result in the use of social science research for policy purposes at a variety of policy locations. To test and refine this relational conceptual model, the PIs will convene an interdisciplinary group of social scientists who will provide case studies of both successful (and not so successful) social science researchers whose work has found its way (or not) into the policy process. The case studies will be used to produce a refined model of successful pathways in which social science research can and does inform public policy.Broader ImpactThe project is potentially transformative because rather than examine an "idealized" casual model of the impact of research on policy, the project uses cases studies of researchers' experiences to inform an interactive model of human relationships, networks, and social processes that result in the use or the failure to use social science research in a variety of policy situations. The widespread dissemination of a findings has the potential to increase the number of social scientists who are more attuned to considering (1) about their research and findings beyond the academic research community; and (2) in more specific terms how social science research findings can inform public policy and practice.