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Finding Our Future: A Research Agenda for the Research Enterprise

Abstract

Acknowledgments

Executive Summary

Chapter 1. An Ideal Research Enterprise

Chapter 2. Challenges Confronting the Research Enterprise

Chapter 3. Responding to the Challenges: A Thematic Research Agenda

Chapter 4. Responding to the Challenges: An Integrative Research Agenda

Chapter 5. Toward the Ideal Research Enterprise: Action Recommendations

Appendix

Appendix


Participants


Methodology

This report is the result of a one-year effort to understand the research enterprise in the United States and the world of possibilities for its future. In particular, the study sought to re-envision the proposal and grant management functions in government organizations that award research grants, and to explore how process changes and advanced information technologies could support that transformation. The Center for Technology in Government conducted this research in cooperation with the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Best and Current Practices Research

Document and Web Search

Purpose: To provide background information on public and private large-scale research grants-making organizations, and to explore best practices for comparison with interview data and for later consideration of potentially useful innovations.

Procedures: This work involved searching both paper documents and Web sites for information on: the agencies central to this research project; the legislative and larger federal environment in which they work; other federal grants-making agencies; private for-profit and non-profit organizations involved in funding research; and organizational and technological innovations relevant to this enterprise.

Results: This information gathering resulted in short reports regarding: agency and foundation profiles; the Federal Commons Project, Electronic Research Administration (ERA), the Interagency Electronic Grants Committee (IAEGC); organizational issues and innovations; technology issues and innovations; and experiences with innovations.

Interviews
Purpose: To hear about grants-making in very large organizations, and about the challenges, opportunities for improvement and growth, and visions for such organizations from various perspectives within the grants-making community.

Procedures: In-depth, unstructured interviews were generally conducted in person with two researchers and were recorded using audiotapes and fieldnotes. Interviews were held at the interviewees' institution and involved both groups and individuals. After September 11, the researchers successfully used video-conferencing technology to approximate the in-person process. Interviews were organized in three groups, including: 19 NSF and 20 NIH senior staff involved in different aspects of the granting process; 16 senior staff from other granting organizations, both private and public, selected by size and by nature of grant provision as comparable to NSF/NIH; and 17 university faculty staff experienced in NSF and/or NIH grants processes as proposers, grantees, reviewers, program officers, and/or administrators. Participants were asked to: describe the work they do as part of the research enterprise; assess the extent to which technology is already integrated into that work; consider the organizational and individual value embedded in that work; and suggest improvements that would help develop the ideal granting agency of the future.

Result: Interviewees' experiences and suggestions for broad-scale change were used, along with other best practices data, to develop descriptions of ideal characteristics of a granting agency of the future and a draft vision of such an organization. These were presented back to NSF and NIH interviewees at the December 2001 Workshop for critical feedback.

Workshops

December 2001 Workshop, Washington, D.C.

Purpose: To identify the relative importance of ideals drawn from the interview data and to clarify what steps toward developing these ideals were feasible with the help of further research.

Procedure: The first workshop involved 18 participants drawn from NSF and NIH interviewees. Framed by "a draft vision of an ideal government granting organization," the workshop comprised presentations and large- and small-group discussions on beneficiaries, barriers and enablers in the areas of strategy, political relationships, stakeholder relationships, organization, processes, and information technology.

Result: Participants prioritized characteristics in terms of importance and "doability." Themes for a future research agenda emerged from discussions of those considered most important but in need of further research in order to become feasible.

March 2002 Workshop, Arlington, Va.

Purpose: To refine the vision; to discuss the challenges regarding value, workflow, knowledge, collaboration, and technology; and to recommend a research agenda that addresses them.

Procedure: The second workshop involved 37 participants from a range of federal agencies, private foundations, universities, and related professional associations. The workshop began with a panel discussion on what we value in the research enterprise, followed by a series of expert presentations from invited speakers and small-group discussions on: relevant organizational, policy, and technology initiatives; emergent streams of research; and what actions and knowledge are needed to achieve the ideal.

Result: This workshop took the vision from the level of ideal granting agency to ideal research enterprise. The data gathered in the workshop, together with earlier findings and expert knowledge, were used to formulate recommendations about what must be done in the research enterprise to achieve the vision. These are presented in the body of this report.
© 2003 Center for Technology in Government