 |
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.
Pursuing several themes emerging from the concerns of EPSCoR states, 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.
To further explore lessons learned in advising the development of research institutions, the Research Competitiveness Program has organized an occasional series of symposia on research management. A symposium at the 2004 AAAS Annual Meeting, entitled, "Leading the Changing University Research Environment,"
focusing especially on providing advice and insights on developing multidisciplinary research, promoting interdisciplinary training, realizing the university as an engine of economic development and managing institutional pressure to increase overall research funding.
The presentations from this symposium are available here.
For the 2006 AAAS Annual Meeting, the symposium on "Management and Leadership of Multi-institutional and Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations"
focused on the premise that our nation does not have to rely only on the top 100 research schools for new discoveries and technology innovation ideas. Instead, it could build capacity by improving all schools through effective collaboration mechanisms. The speakers addressed strategies for university administrators and government officials to encourage such collaborations across disciplines and sectors. The three talks also proposed solutions to resolving differences in institutional culture. The economic benefit of the partnerships and the approaches for sharing resources and talent effectively through the formation of interdisciplinary doctoral degree programs was explained as well. The speakers emphasized that an information retrieval system for tracking the impact of the collaborations is needed in order to measure success rates and sustainability.
The agenda and speaker bios are linked here.
A crucial part of competitive research, locally and nationwide,
is effective graduate education and postdoctoral training.
The Research Competitiveness Program hosted a workshop,
"Support of Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Researchers in the Sciences and Engineering:
Impact of Related Policies & Practices,"
to consider the role and impact that trainee support plays in
encouraging U.S. citizens to pursue and complete doctoral and
postdoctoral studies in science, technology, engineering and math.
The workshop, sponsored by the National Science Foundation,
the National Institutes of Health and the Council of Graduate Schools,
addressed elements of graduate student and postdoctoral support
packages including mode, duration, amount of stipend, health care
and other benefits; and indicators of student progress such as
completion rate and time to first professional position.
The workshop deliberations set the stage for developing best
practices and outlining a research agenda on these topics,
as well as building a community of researchers, educators, and
stakeholders to maintain an ongoing dialogue in this critical area.
The agenda, with links to presentations, is available here. The final report
is available here as a pdf file.
An important component of competitive research programs is often the
development of strategic collaborations among researchers in different
fields and at different institutions. Research collaborations also
form a crucial bridge between researchers in different nations,
providing participants with fresh insights and creating lasting
cultural bridges. As part of ongoing efforts to promote scientific
collaborations, the program organized a symposium at the
2005 AAAS Annual Meeting,
"Science in the Arab World: Status, Institutions and Developing Relationships."
The program, with links to presentations, is available here.
Continuing the exploration of international issues as well as pulling together lessons learned in many of these threads, we presented a session "Research Competitiveness Strategies of Small Countries" at the 2007 AAAS Annual Meeting. A summary of the program is here, which includes links to further details on presentations.
|
|
