Institution: California Institute of Technology NSF Program: Elementary Particle Accelerator User Groups Principal Investigator: Sanders, Gary H.
Efficient management of large science facilities requires experience and skills not usually found in the repertoire of research scientists.
This proposal addresses the planning and definition of educational programs for early-career scientists (undergraduate students through postdoctoral fellows), to practicing mid-career researchers as they approach leadership roles in project science settings or as they adapt to collaborating in existing projects.
Building upon the prior activity "Project Science: A Program in Education and Training in Management of Big Science Projects, the PI proposes to extend this research and workshop program for up to two years while developing a follow-on proposal for a broader activity combining these lessons learned workshops in the management of big science projects, and the synthesis of the case studies into new insights and practices in this field with a new activity that reaches out to the involved communities through a monthly electronic newsletter, community based web presence and electronic publishing.
Marvin Goldberg Program Officer MPS/PHY/EPP
Project Science is an effort to broaden and increase the competence in the research community to carry out large scientific construction projects and to implement major scientific platforms and tools. Project Science has developed a program of instruction, case-based reference materials and resource materials for scientists embarking on big science efforts. Project management is a universal competence, important in science, software engineering, construction, industrial development, product development, business services reengineering and any activity in which well-defined goals and significant resources are involved. The methods and lessons of project management can be learned in a variety of settings. Courses and workshops are available through business schools, university economics and engineering departments, internal corporate training and through private consultants and training firms. However, the unique technical and scientific demands, the support and oversight framework and the cultural settings of research science communities provide unique perspectives, challenges and issues. Our program is focused on these communities and the methods that we believe are most appropriate for managing the cutting edge frontier science project with the methods developed for more conventional projects. Major science projects combine the technical and scientific challenge intrinsic to forefront science efforts with the managerial, system engineering and cost/schedule control imperatives of large projects in general. The education of scientists does not include exposure to these disciplines. As a result, many large science projects have experienced cost, schedule and execution challenges, resulting in replanning or even cancellation. The Project Science workshops have been carried out to bring together past, present and emerging participants in major science projects to share lessons learned in actual project case studies, as well as foundational presentations on project management, the culture of science teams and communities and the particular complexities of major science projects. The workshops have been attended by approximately 750 scientists, engineers and oversight officials (approximately 200 in this award) who have been exposed to the basic methodology of managing large scientific facility projects. More than 40 major projects have been presented as case studies to these attendees. The workshops have also formed a network of contacts supporting future development of their expertise. This population is mainly in mid and late career and all are involved with one or more large scientific projects. The intellectual merit of the Project Science series has been to collect and identify the elements of large project management together with the tacit expertise that is applicable to science projects. The broader impact of Project Science is the outreach to, and even the formation of, a community of science project leaders and the dissemination of the specialized techniques and the lessons learned in the case studies. Potential indirect outcomes are the increase in the success rate of science projects and the resulting increase in the success of the related scientific fields.
