This workshop contributes to the advancement and development of research in decision, risk, and management sciences (DRMS). The DRMS Program at NSF supports research on a broad range of topics such as confidence in eyewitness memory, climate change scenarios, the application of neurosciences to decision research, risk perceptions and behaviors, and genetic influences on morality. The scholars who do this work have diverse backgrounds such as economics, psychology, political science, and neuroscience. They are part of the DRMS community, but they rarely come together to share ideas about the future of DRMS research. The intention of the workshop is to stimulate the creation of new teams that have the potential to produce transformative work through both interchanges at the event and publications emanating from the workshop.
The workshop addresses the broader impacts of DRMS research as well as its intellectual merit. One emphasis is on strategies to increase the participation of traditionally underrepresented groups in DRMS research.
This report briefly summarizes the outcomes produced by the above funded award. The proposal for this award identified two primary objectives. First, the funding would allow the organization of a workshop that would bring together leading early-career researchers from several fields within the social sciences. The workshop was to provide a venue for presentations and discussions regarding cutting-edge research and future opportunities in areas with great promise for producing significant advances and practical knowledge in the broad areas encompassed by Decision, Risk, and Management Sciences (DRMS). The attendance of the DRMS Program Directors at the workshop would provide an immediate channel for them to acquire the information discussed and ideas generated at the workshop. This objective was achieved by holding a workshop on May 6 and 7, 2011, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the campus of Carnegie Mellon University. Organization of the workshop began in the middle of 2010 and lasted until the date of the workshop. Twenty-three invited scholars, three advisory committee members, and the lead Investigator attended the workshop as the principal participants. These attendees participated in highly informative presentations and discussions aimed at identifying promising and important future areas of research. The DRMS Program Directors’ attendance at the workshop allowed them to directly acquire the knowledge and insights generated there. The second objective involved the preparation, by the lead Investigator, of a report to provide the DRMS program directors and general public with a synthesis of the knowledge generated at the workshop, highlighting areas likely to constitute a large part of the future of DRMS. A draft of this report was prepared and delivered to the DRMS Program Directors on May 4, 2012. After undergoing revision with input from the Program Directors and others involved with the workshop, the report will be widely disseminated.
