This project remedies one of the greatest impediments to rapid progress in the science of science and innovation policy (SciSIP) both as a field of study and as a guide to policy: the lack of an integrated database which can trace the links from government investment in R&D through the path of knowledge creation, its transmission and codification, and ultimately in many cases to commercial uses yielding a better standard of living and better jobs. Specifically, the project completes, validates, demonstrates the utility of, and makes available to the research community the Science & Technology Agents of Revolution (STAR) Database which is a transformative platform technology for analyses in whole or part of the creation, transmission, and use of new scientific and engineering knowledge, the creation of new commercial technologies in pre-existing and/or new firms, and the success of those firms as engines of wealth creation and employment growth. The STAR database integrates and complements key databases on science and innovation by a system of unique IDs for firms and other organizations and for individual scientists and engineers as they appear as principal investigators, authors, dissertation writers or advisors, inventors, and/or firm officers, directors, and key employees. Especially the most productive of these scientists ? the ?star innovators? ? wear many hats simultaneously.
The STAR database integrates data on government grants, journal articles, dissertations, patents, venture capital, initial public offerings, and other firm data. It links to major public databases via widely used financial market identifiers. In collaboration with the Census Bureau, the STAR and the Census firm and worker databases are linked by a concordance for use by researchers with access to the Census data. The STAR database will have three tiers: a public graphics-based site primarily oriented toward policymakers and the media, a public site providing access to researchers for downloads and database queries limited to the public constituent databases or aggregates derived from the licensed commercial databases, and on-site access at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) providing researchers access to the complete STAR Database for building take-away analysis datasets.
Broader Impacts: This project is designed specifically for broader impact. It will provide a shared database that will advance discovery, and enable research otherwise impossibly expensive for nearly any dissertation student or faculty member not located at one of the few elite institutions where significant parts of the STAR Database are available. Real data will bring excitement to classroom assignments on topics that in the abstract can deaden students' interest. Most of the data are available on-line with the commercially licensed part of the data available for building take-away analysis data sets at the NBER and for use within all the Census Bureau?s Research Data Centers. These data enable both academic and government researchers to build reliable and tested answers to fundamental administration and Congressional questions about the variety of returns to government investments in research. Zucker and Darby pursue an active outreach program to get their results to policymakers and the press in a form that they can use.
