An Analytical Synthesis of Empirical Research on U.S. University-Industry and Federal Laboratory-Industry Research Cooperation

在过去的二十年里，经济和政治力量共同努力，增加了美国合作研究活动的数量和强度。一部试图对这些活动进行分类、记录、监测、分析和评估的大量文献也出现了，作为联邦机构和基金会赞助的研究成果。到目前为止，还没有做出重大努力，从分析和政策导向的角度对这些文献进行批判性的综合。该项目将开始满足这一需求。为了使最初的工作易于管理，审查将限于基于原始或档案数据的经验性研究，而不是理论、规范或政策分析；对美国机构之间研究合作的研究；出版或至少随时可以获得的报告和研究；以及过去十年出版或印刷的材料。其主要目的是从经验性文献中提取一组与政策相关的结果，这些结果基于使用不同方法或衡量标准的多项研究。调查人员将为符合纳入标准的所有研究准备结构化的摘要。这些将包括一个可通过关键字访问的电子数据库，并将是研究的主要成果之一。结果还将包括对美国合作研究文献的批判性综合，围绕政策和研究界都感兴趣的政策问题进行组织。审查将处理方法和衡量问题，并产生一套结论，说明从集体研究中学到了什么，对每项结论可以给予何种程度的置信度，以及为什么。

Over the past two decades, economic and political forces worked together to increase the amount and intensity of cooperative research activity in the U.S. A sizable literature, attempting to classify, document, monitor, analyze, and evaluate these activities, has also appeared, as outputs from research sponsored by federal agencies and foundations. To date there has been no significant effort to perform a critical synthesis of this literature from and analytical, policy-oriented perspective. This project will begin to address this need. To make the initial effort manageable, the review will be restricted to empirical studies based on original or archival data, rather than theoretical, normative, or policy analyses; studies of research cooperation among U.S. institutions; published or at least readily available reports and studies; and materials published or printed in the last ten years. The primary purpose is to extract from the empirical literature a set of policy-relevant results based on multiple studies using different methodologies or measures. The investigators will prepare structured summaries of all the studies that meet the criteria for inclusion. These will comprise an electronic data base that can be accessed via keywords, and will be one of the primary outputs from the study. The results will also include a critical synthesis of the literature on cooperative research in the U.S., organized around policy questions of interest to both the policy and research communities. The review will address methodological and measurement issues and produce a set of conclusions about what has been learned from the studies collectively, what level of confidence can be placed on each conclusion, and why.