Moving toward the ideal research enterprise requires a solid understanding of these challenges and how best to respond to them. The new knowledge needed to build that understanding and to design effective responses is not likely to come from research in a single discipline or analytical model. We need instead wide-ranging and integrative efforts to help us understand how the research enterprise works today and how it can move toward an ideal future. These efforts can be organized around five themes that are reflected in the current work of and challenges faced by the research enterprise as described on the next page:

• understanding the multiple value propositions that stakeholders bring to the enterprise and how they are aligned, are complementary, or conflict
• understanding how work is done by individuals and groups, within and across organizations
• understanding how individuals, groups, and organizations collaborate across the boundaries of structure, time, and place
• understanding how knowledge is captured, managed, and used within the enterprise
• understanding how to choose, use, manage, and support information technology investments