Doctoral Dissertation Research: Philanthropic Investments in Academic Research Centers

个人捐赠者向高校捐赠慈善礼物的历史由来已久。本博士论文研究项目将考察私人捐赠支持科研中心的动机和社会效益。该项目将加强对由个人捐助者捐赠建立的研究中心的科学和社会成果的了解。该项目的研究结果将供政府官员、大学管理人员和学者使用。这些发现对于理解高校对科学的大额捐赠如何影响科学发现以及这些捐赠为科学、当地社区和更广泛的社会提供的社会效益类型将非常重要。该项目依靠定性和定量的方法，为个人慈善捐赠的趋势和结果提供系统的证据，以在学术机构建立新的研究中心。该项目将采用先进的计算和统计建模方法来检验捐助者和机构变量对100多个研究中心的建立的影响。此外，对捐助者、学术筹款人员和中心主任的半结构化访谈将提供捐助者捐赠意愿和对其投资期望的定性数据。将对选定研究中心的案例研究进行评估，以评估其不同程度的科学影响（例如专利和出版物的数量）。这项研究将提供新的见解，了解捐助者在向科学提供大笔捐赠时如何正式和非正式地影响科学成果。该数据库将向研究人员、决策者和管理人员公开提供。

Individual donors have a long history of making philanthropic gifts to colleges and universities. This doctoral dissertation research project will examine motivations and social benefits of private gifts to support scientific research centers. The project will enhance the understanding of the scientific and social outcomes of research centers established by gifts from individual donors. The findings from this project will be used by governmental officials, university administrators and scholars. The findings will be important to understand how large gifts to science at colleges and universities influences scientific discovery and the types of social benefit these gifts provide to science, the local community and broader society.The project relies on qualitative and quantitative methods to provide systematic evidence of the trends and outcomes of philanthropic gifts made by individuals to establish new research centers at academic institutions. The project will employ advanced computing and statistical modeling approaches to test for the significance of donor and institutional variables impacting the establishment of over 100 research centers. In addition, semi-structured interviews with donors, academic fundraising personnel and center directors will provide qualitative data on donors' willingness to give and their expectations for their investments. Case studies on selected research centers will be assessed for their varying levels of scientific impact (e.g. number of patents and publications). The research will provide new insights on how donors formally and informally impact scientific outcomes when making large gifts to science. The database will be made publicly available for researchers, policymakers and administrators.