Economic and Scientific Effects of Federal Investment in Chemical Sciences Research

2009年美国联邦政府为大学研发提供了近330亿美元的资金，约占当年大学研发总资金的60%。 该项目研究了联邦资助大学化学研发对一系列重大经济和科学成果的影响，包括新科学知识的产生以及这些知识如何反过来影响当地经济。该项目采用双轨研究战略，阐明联邦资助对科学生产力和地方经济发展的影响。 在第一个轨道中，我们使用动态面板估计框架分析了150个最受资助机构的研究资金历史数据。 我们通过培养的博士生数量，出版物的数量，这些出版物的学术影响（反映在引用数量上）以及授予的专利数量来衡量科学成果;经济成果使用每个机构周围社区的平均工资水平来衡量。 在过去的二十年里，政策引起的研究经费的显著变化被用作一个自然的实验，以获得增加经费对这些不同影响措施的边际影响的因果估计。在第二轨道中，调查数据将从被研究的机构的化学系的调查人员那里收集，以深入了解机构特征，态度和行为对联邦资助的效果起中介作用。 将研究化学家的调查数据与第一轨道的支出影响的总体分析相结合，将产生针对化学科学投资影响的见解，然后可以将其与非化学支出的影响进行比较。 更广泛的影响：该项目将制定量化措施，衡量联邦资助对科学和经济成果的影响，并将其与所研究大学的不同机构特征联系起来。 对这些影响的估计可用于确定增加或减少额外供资影响的具体体制特征，从而评估增加供资最具（和最不具）成效的领域。 对于参与制定科学政策和分配稀缺的纳税人资金的联邦官员来说，这些估计将有助于支持选择，使其投资的科学影响最大化。 对于管理这些研究机构的大学官员来说，这些估计数将使他们能够更好地了解机构政策如何影响预期的机构成果，从而支持他们更好地选择机构优先事项的能力。

In 2009 the U.S. Federal government provided nearly $33 billion in funding for university performed research and development (R&D), accounting for about 60 percent of the total funding for university R&D in that year. This project examines the impact of this federal funding for university R&D in chemistry on a range of significant economic and scientific outcomes, including the production of new scientific knowledge and how this knowledge in turn affects local economies. The project uses a two-track research strategy to shed light on the impacts of federal funding on scientific productivity and local economic development. In the first track, we analyze historical data on research funding at the 150 most-funded institutions using a dynamic panel estimation framework. We measure scientific outcomes via the number of doctoral students trained, the quantity of publications produced, the scholarly impact of these publications as reflected in the number of citations they receive, and the number of patents awarded; economic outcomes are measured using average wage levels in the community surrounding each institution. The significant policy-induced variations in research funding over the last two decades are exploited as a natural experiment to obtain causal estimates of the marginal impact of increased funding on these different measures of impact.In the second track, survey data will be collected from investigators in chemistry departments at the institutions being studied to gain insight about the ways in which institutional characteristics, attitudes and behaviors mediate the effects of federal funding. Combining this survey data from research chemists with the overall analysis of spending impact from the first track will yield insights specific to the effects of chemical-science investments that can then be compared to the impacts of non-chemistry spending. Broader Impacts:The project will develop quantitative measures of the impact of federal funding on scientific and economic outcomes and connect them to different institutional characteristics at the universities studied. Estimates of these impacts can be used to identify specific institutional characteristics that either increase or reduce the impact of additional funding, and thereby evaluate the most (and least) productive areas for incremental funding. For federal officials involved in setting science policy and allocating scarce taxpayer funds, these estimates will help support choices that maximize the scientific impact of their investments. For university officials administering these research institutions, these estimates will allow them to better understand how institutional policies affect desired institutional outcomes and consequently support their ability to make better choices about institutional priorities.