This project investigates the organization and management of three Federal agencies that support scientific research to identify the key differences among the agencies and how they impact the type of research that is conducted, the development of communities of interest, and research outcomes. Preliminary research suggests there is significant variation in understanding, within both the agency personnel managing the funding process and the scientific community of researchers that receive funding, of what critical factors define each agency and influence research outcomes. The project examines and compares funding activities at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It also includes an exploratory component focused on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and gathers some observations about other Federal funding agencies that have supported NSF-, DARPA, and NIH-funded researchers.
Intellectual Merit
A major contribution of this research is to advance understanding of the impact on funding decisions of the role of the program manager (or project manager), the degree of decision-making autonomy at this level of the organization, and the way in which that autonomy is managed and directed. The project draws heavily on the literature on "street-level" bureaucracy in the public sector and on the decentralization of authority in large corporate organizations of the private sector. In this, it departs from the emphasis in the recent literature on the management of the public sector by recognizing the role of the norms of different communities (e.g., the scientific community; the professional community of program managers, the military community) and the way in which the evolution of these norms can be guided and directed by various management approaches. The research is based on interviews with current and recent funding agency staff, and with researchers who have applied (successfully or unsuccessfully) to the agencies for funding. It also draws on a confidential database from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on all applications for funding submitted within a fifteen year period, linked to data on patents, licensing and scholarly publications related to federal funded research projects.
Broader Impacts
The project is designed to help policy makers and administrators evaluate the design of federal research programs, understand how they relate to each other in the eyes of the researchers who they fund and whose behavior they seek to influence, and better identify the levers for effectively managing research and development. It will also provide a preliminary model for attempting to evaluate the impact of scientific investments. Finally, it provides recommendations regarding ways to improve managerial performance, an analytical template for programs beyond those that are the direct focus of the study, and contribute to the literature on public sector management more broadly.
