AAAS policy studies in the area of research competitiveness predate the founding of the Research Competitiveness Program, and, indeed, led to its establishment to address some of the issues which our policy studies identified and analyzed.

In 1996, AAAS published Competitiveness in Academic Research (Albert H. Teich, ed., Washington, DC: AAAS, 1996), which identified a number of issues to be resolved regarding the definition of research competitiveness, the best ways to enhance it, and how to measure success in achieving it.

As part of the EPSCoR Project, RCP subsequently sponsored research into the following questions:

What activities and decisions are characteristic of states and institutions that have been successful in improving the competitiveness of their research progams?

How will the changing political and economic contexts for scientific research on the national and global level impact strategies for competitive research in the EPSCoR states?

What are appropriate and critical measures of effectiveness for assessing research programs and their impact on human resources and the economy at the level of the state or local community?

Two major reports were prepared: "Strategic Options to Enhance the Research Competitiveness of EPSCoR Universities," by Professor Irwin Feller of Pennsylvania State University and "Building State Science: The EPSCoR Experience," by Professor Harry Lambright of Syracuse University. These and other papers were presented at a science and technology policy conference, entitled, "Strategies for Competing in the Mainstream," held in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in October, 1999.

As a capstone of the policy studies conducted under the EPSCoR project, AAAS has published a book, Strategies for Competitiveness in Academic Research (J. Scott Hauger and Celia McEnaney, editors, Washington DC: AAAS, 2000). The text of the book and ordering information is available here.

The program sponsored a session at the AAAS 1999 Annual Meeting, entitled, "Investing in Research: Distributed vs. Elite Science," and a session at the AAAS 2001 Annual Meeting on "Global Perspectives on Emerging Research Universities: Strategies for Achieving Research Competitiveness." It also conducted a symposium at the twenty-fourth AAAS Science Policy Colloquium, entitled, "Bringing the Knowledge Economy Home: The Role of State and Local Governments." The symposium presentations are published as Part 5 of the AAAS Science and Technology Policy Yearbook 2000.

During the year 2001, the Research Competitiveness Program will work to continue its program of policy studies in the field of research competitiveness.

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