Collaborative Research: Who are Interdisciplinary STEM Doctoral Graduates? Exploring and Assessing Antecedents and Economic Consequences

康奈尔大学和俄亥俄州立大学的研究人员将应用经济学框架来检验在早期、中期和后期职业博士生和学位持有者中选择从事跨学科论文研究的风险、回报和好处。他们将利用博士生调查、博士学位获得者调查和创新与科学研究所的数据，比较跨学科研究的不同定义，并分析和绘制职业发展趋势图。这项研究将为完成STEM领域跨学科学位论文的博士生及其导师提供新的见解，了解他们面临的职业水平影响。该项目支持NSF确定融合研究大想法的优先顺序，并支持发展一支能够在复杂问题上进行跨学科解决方案工作的劳动力队伍。拟议项目的目标是利用丰富的数据来源提高对STEM跨学科研究的构成及其衡量方式的理解，跟踪在STEM发表跨学科学位论文的个人特征的纵向变化，量化经济成果，并研究在STEM撰写跨学科学位论文的人的职业道路。具体的研究问题是(1)跨学科的不同定义在多大程度上会在跨学科研究频率的测量中产生差异，这些衡量标准随着时间的推移是如何变化的？(2)哪些人口统计和社会经济因素有助于解释在STEM完成跨学科学位论文研究的决定，这些因素是如何随着时间的推移而变化的？(3)在STEM完成跨学科学位论文的个人寻求和获得终身教职的可能性是大还是小？以及(4)随着时间的推移，完成STEM跨学科论文的人的工资增长速度是否会与他们的非学科同行相同、更慢或更快？研究人员将主要使用定量分析技术和方程建模来解决这些问题。该项目将有助于改善个别学生和他们所在机构未来的职业准备。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Researchers at Cornell and Ohio State Universities will apply an economic framework to examine the risks, rewards, and benefits of the choice to pursue interdisciplinary dissertation research among early, mid- and later career Ph.D. students and degree holders. Using data from the Survey of Earned Doctorates, Survey of Doctorate Recipients, and the Institute for Research on Innovation & Science, they will compare competing definitions of interdisciplinary research and analyze and map trends regarding career outcomes. The research will generate new insights for Ph.D. students and their advisors on career-level effects faced by those who complete interdisciplinary dissertations in STEM fields. The project supports the NSF prioritization of the Convergence Research Big Idea and the need to develop a workforce that can conduct cross-disciplinary solution-oriented work on complex problems. The objectives of the proposed project are to utilize rich data sources to improve understanding of what constitutes interdisciplinary research in STEM and how it is measured, to track changes longitudinally in the characteristics of individuals who conduct interdisciplinary dissertations in STEM, to quantify economic outcomes, and to study the career paths of those who conduct interdisciplinary dissertations in STEM. The specific research questions are (1) to what degree do differing definitions of interdisciplinarity yield variation in the measurement of interdisciplinary research frequency, and how do these measures vary over time? (2) Which demographic and socio-economic factors help explain the decision to complete interdisciplinary dissertation research in STEM, and how do these change over time? (3) Do individuals who complete interdisciplinary dissertations in STEM seek and earn tenure with greater or lesser probability? and (4) Over time, will the salary of people who complete an interdisciplinary dissertation in STEM grow at the same rate, slower, or faster than their non-disciplinary peers? The researchers will address the questions using primarily quantitative analytical techniques and equation modeling. The project will help improve future career preparation for individual students and the institutions where they study.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.