The National Science Foundation (NSF) today awarded $399,939 for two research projects designed to use the science initiatives funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to advance understanding of the impact of science investments.
Researchers at the University of Virginia get $199,951 to study the impact of stimulus funding on employment in science and engineering fields, while the University of Michigan receives $199,988 to develop a database of the investments in and outcomes of social science projects funded by the ARRA.
The awards are the first of several NSF grants to study aspects of the government's economic stimulus package. Additional awards will be released shortly.
"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to study how funding changes affect economic, social and scientific outcomes," said Julia Lane, program director for Science of Science and Innovation Policy at NSF, whose office made the awards.
In one instance, the new funding presents an opportunity to measure the labor market's ability to respond to rapid change as it relates to academic science and engineering. It is widely believed that the ARRA stimulus will have substantial impacts on hiring and staffing for university science programs.
Researchers are eager to discover if the supply of science-oriented doctorates can keep up with the new demand for workers. In particular, the research will explore the relative roles of U.S. and foreign doctorates in meeting employment needs.
Plans call for researchers to collect data on ARRA funding of academic science and engineering programs for a two-year period. The research is scheduled to begin before the end of the year.
The University of Michigan study will develop a database to assess the full economic, social and scientific outcomes of social science research investments by following the entire life cycle of social science projects funded by ARRA.
Researchers anticipate that the study will also help scholars evaluate their contributions to making science policy and to innovative social science research more broadly.
"The novel thing about this research is that it follows social science projects from start to finish," said Lane. "It will examine the full life cycle of an award through research publication, to citations by other researchers, to presentations to policymakers, using both surveys and bibliometric analysis to get at the multidimensional nature of research impact."
The proposed work will also help scholars design future social science projects and help funding agencies develop a better understanding of the way in which science investments work their way through the scientific enterprise.