Impact of Granting Research Fund on Interdisciplinarity of Research Outcomes

在本研究项目的第一部分，通过使用每个领域的研究出版物的元数据，对三个选定的研究领域（纳米药物递送、合成生物学和自动驾驶汽车）中研究的跨学科性及其对解决新兴技术问题的贡献之间的关系进行了实证检验。本研究发现，跨学科研究对解决三个研究领域中的新兴技术主题具有独特的贡献。根据这一发现，有人认为，对跨学科研究的更积极的资金支持需要加速新技术的出现。这项研究发表在《研究评价》杂志上。在第二部分中，我考察了研究经费分配在跨学科研究促进技术创新的方式中的作用。实证分析是基于2010年70万篇期刊论文的元数据。我对研究论文的跨学科性与其技术影响之间的相关性分析表明，只有当研究来自资助项目时，跨学科研究对技术发展的影响才会更大。这一发现表明，资金分配过程可以作为一种制度性工具，选择性地支持可能产生技术影响的跨学科研究。这一发现在乔治亚理工学院的一个在线研讨会上发表，该研究论文目前正在一本杂志上进行审查。

In the first part of this research project, the relationship between the interdisciplinarity of research and its contribution to addressing emerging technological issues within three selected research domains (Nano-enable drug delivery, Synthetic biology, and Autonomous vehicles) was empirically examined by using the metadata of the research publications in each field. This research discovered that interdisciplinary research distinctively contributes to addressing emerging technological topics in each of the three research domains. From this finding, It is argued that more active funding supports for interdisciplinary research need to accelerate the emergence of new technology. This research has been published in Research Evaluation.In the second part, I examine the role of research funding allocations in the way interdisciplinary research contributes to technological innovation. The empirical analysis is based on the metadata of the 0.7 million journal papers in 2010. My analysis on the correlation between a research paper's interdisciplinarity and its technological impact shows that interdisciplinary research has been more impactful to technology development only when the research was originated from funded projects. This finding suggests that the funding allocation process functions as an institutional instrument for selectively supporting interdisciplinary research that could have a technology impact. This finding was presented in an online workshop with colleagues at Georgia Tech and the research paper is currently under review in a journal.