This EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) award to the University of Arizona provides funding to examine how collaboration among researchers in the field of nanotechnology has influenced the advancement of research in this field. To maintain the U.S.'s competitive edge, the U.S. government has invested over $16.5 billion in nanotechnology research and development (R&D) including the 2012 budget of $2.1 billion through the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). Likewise, significant investments in nanotechnology have been made by other nations throughout the world. However, the impacts of this funding on knowledge diffusion from research to innovation occurs is unclear. Moreover, it is unclear if there are differences between the collaboration networks of publicly funded researchers and others.
Considering these questions, the researchers will examine collaboration networks of nanotechnology researchers the U.S. as well as those of other countries with a view toward learning which factors contribute to the effectiveness of researcher-inventors' collaboration networks, and if there are factors which contribute the most or have the greatest impact. This will be accomplished through the application of the Exponential Random Graph Model (ERGM) and Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) model for social network analysis to model how nanotechnology knowledge and information moves through a network over time; and to explore how public funding as well as the attributes of basic researchers, researcher-inventors, and their networks may help or hinder knowledge diffusion over time. It is expected that an outcome of this research will be a better understanding of how public funding has improved knowledge diffusion in collaboration networks of researcher-inventors/researchers to advancing nanotechnology R&D for the past two decades.
