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，或称“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共同工具相互分享知识、推进领域并引发跨学科合作的地方。然而，我们知道，科学家经常不愿分享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。虽然先前的研究考虑了科学家在工作中如何处理公开和保密之间的紧张关系，但这项研究在很大程度上忽视了科学支持人员--那些维护和开发科学仪器和技术的人--在科学家之间传播宝贵技术知识方面所发挥的作用。这项研究通过15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。通过记录核心设施中的科学支持人员如何在潜在的竞争研究人员之间创造和传播知识，我们希望为寻求提高共享研究基础设施的生产率的决策者提供信息。通过阐述科学支持人员工作的各种任务、技能、能力和专业，我们的研究还应该建议大学和核心设施如何为科学工作人员实施更好的奖励结构和职业，从而加强国家的STEM工作力量。本研究通过对两所大学纳米制造设施的民族志研究，检验了科学支持人员在核心设施中的作用，这些设施为区域研究人员社区提供洁净室和半导体制造设备。我们的目标是：(1)深入探讨核心设施的科学支助人员所拥有的知识种类；(2)记录工作人员的贡献如何(以及在哪些方面)促进用户研究项目的进展；(3)探讨支助人员是否传播知识，如果是，如何传播，以及以何种频率传播，以对抗保密对用户的有害影响；以及(4)记录一个核心设施的支助人员开发的知识是否以及如何传播到其他核心设施。我们的总体目标是通过更好地了解科学支助人员在核心设施内和跨核心设施创造和传播知识方面的作用，加深对科学如何从核心设施的共享资源中受益的理解。这项研究将在科学研究、组织研究、公共政策以及工作和职业社会学等多个领域做出贡献。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。