Emerging Researchers on the Path to Innovation

本研究项目将探讨联邦研究与开发（R D）资金对研究生产率的影响。鉴于之前对这一一般性主题的研究主要集中在高级研究人员和团队的成果上，该项目将关注新兴研究人员，特别是科学和工程学科的美国研究生。 通过关注这一被忽视的群体，该项目将扩大有关研发投资对研究生产力的作用的知识，并提高对科学和工程学科研究生教育和培训的理解。 该项目将通过使用赠款结果的公共记录和第三方数据库，最大限度地减少项目重点关注的个人和团体的报告负担。 这种方法将提供更完整和及时的数据来评估研发成果，并将扩大对研究成果如何不仅因机构背景和学科而异，而且因性别等社会因素而异的认识。 该项目将为研究生和本科生提供教育和培训机会。 除了开展研究项目和通过学术期刊传播研究结果外，研究人员还将开发并提供有关数据构建活动的在线教程，这些活动将利用第三方来源的数据，以便其他研究人员可以扩展自己的研究能力。 该项目还将提供新的信息和见解，可以告知政策制定方面的R D投资的管理S E研究生教育和培训计划。该研究项目将随机抽取高质量的S E研究生谁获得奖励或谁被指定为荣誉提名的著名的美国国家科学基金会（NSF）研究生研究奖学金计划（GRFP）。 与其他NSF资助机制相比，GRFP合格的申请人在他们的专业和研究教育和培训研究生的早期阶段。 进行这个项目的调查人员将使用获奖者和荣誉提名的两个样本来评估联邦资助对研究生产力和质量的影响。个人和组织层面变量的公共指标将作为额外的控制措施，使研究人员能够解决研究质量的不可观察的措施。 该调查人员将使用一系列第三方数据库，提供有关学位完成，出版活动和专业安置的信息。 一旦来自不同来源的数据被整合，研究人员将使用计量经济学技术来实证检验研发投资对研究相关成果的影响。 更具体地说，他们将研究新兴研究人员的研发投资对出版生产力，研究质量，领导力和独立性的影响。 后两项措施的研究领导和独立性将提供见解，研究生如何使用研发资源，随着时间的推移，开发她/他自己的研究记录。

This research project will examine the impact of federal research and development (R&D) funding on research productivity. Whereas prior research on this general topic has focused on outcomes of senior researchers and teams, this project will direct attention to emerging researchers, specifically U.S. graduate students in the science and engineering academic disciplines. By focusing attention on this overlooked population, this project will expand knowledge about the role of R&D investment on research productivity and enhance understanding of graduate education and training within science and engineering disciplines. The project will minimize the burden of reporting by the individuals and groups on which the project focuses by using public records of grant outcomes and third-party databases. This approach will provide access to more complete and timely data for assessing R&D outcomes, and it will expand knowledge about how research production varies not only by institutional context and academic discipline but also by social factors like gender. This project will provide education and training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. In addition to conducting the research project and disseminating findings through scholarly journals, the investigators will develop and make available online tutorials regarding data-building activities that will leverage data from third-party sources so that other researchers can expand their own research capabilities. The project also will provide new information and insights that can inform policy making with respect to R&D investments to the management of S&E graduate education and training programs.This research project will draw on random samples of high quality S&E graduate students who receive awards or who are designated for honorable mention in the prestigious U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). In contrast to the set of other NSF funding mechanisms, GRFP-eligible applicants are at an earlier point in their professional and research education and training as graduate students. The investigators conducting this project will use the two samples of awardees and honorable mentions to evaluate the impact of federal funding on research productivity and quality. Public metrics on individual- and organizational-level variables will serve as added controls to enable the investigators to address unobservable measures of research quality. This investigators will employ a series of third-party databases that provide information about degree completion, publication activity, and professional placement. Once data from different sources are integrated, the researchers will use econometric techniques to empirically examine the impact of the R&D investment on research-related outcomes. More specifically, they will examine the impact of R&D investment for emerging researchers on publication productivity, research quality, leadership, and independence. The latter two measures of research leadership and independence will offer insights as to how a graduate student uses the R&D resources to develop her/his own research record over time.