Toward Increasing the Impact of Grand Innovation Prizes: Lessons from the Emergence of an Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Ecosystem

创新奖已成为联邦机构提高公共研发投资影响的重要工具。例如，最近出现的自动驾驶汽车（AVs）归功于美国国防高级研究计划局（DARPA）的大型挑战赛（2004-2007）。然而，对于创新奖为什么以及如何发挥作用来改善与研发相关的技术、教育和商业成果，人们知之甚少。因此，本项目旨在了解造成创新奖影响的具体因素。理解技术、教育和商业影响是如何以及为什么发生的，不仅有助于建立奖项模型文献，还将对建立和有效管理创新奖、提高未来创新奖竞赛的社会和商业影响产生重要见解。为了实现项目目标，研究团队将实施嵌入式多案例研究设计，这是一种非常适合在不同分析层次上调查复杂、相互关联的现象的方法。研究小组将通过集中采访参与DARPA大挑战竞赛的大学、政府机构、公司和其他组织的个人来进行案例研究。该研究还将包括没有参与大挑战的参与自动驾驶开发的类似组织的案例研究。这些案例研究将产生AV发展和影响的主要理论解释和竞争理论解释，并通过案例之间的比较，阐明创新奖影响是如何以及为什么发生的。除了出版物之外，项目结果还将在一个研讨会上传播，该研讨会的重点是利用大挑战模型改善少数民族的STEM教育和创业成果。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Innovation prizes have become an important tool for federal agencies to improve the impact of public investments in research and development. For example, the recent emergence of autonomous vehicles (AVs) are attributed to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) grand challenge competitions (2004-2007). However, there is little understanding of why and how innovation prizes function to improve technology, education, and commercial outcomes associated with research and development. This project thus seeks to understand the specific elements responsible for innovation prize impact. Understanding how and why technological, educational, and commercial impact occurred will not only contribute to the prize model literature, it will also generate insights important to the establishment and effective management of innovation prizes, improving the social and commercial impact of future innovation prize competitions. To fulfill the project goals, the research team will implement an embedded, multiple case study design, an approach well-suited for investigating complex, interconnected phenomena over time, at different levels of analysis. The study team will conduct case studies through focused interviews individuals from universities, government agencies, companies, and other organizations involved in AV development that participated in the DARPA grand challenge competitions. The study will also include case studies of similar organizations involved in AV development that did not participate in the grand challenges. These case studies will generate both primary and rival theoretical explanations of AV development and impact and, through comparison among cases, illuminate how and why innovation prize impact occurred. In the addition to publication, project findings will be disseminated in a workshop focused on the utility of grand challenge models for improving STEM education and entrepreneurship outcomes among minorities.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.