Measuring Research and Development Expenditures in the U.S. Nonprofit Sector Conceptual and Design Issues: Summary of a Workshop (2015) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 1-8
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NCSES has been proactive in seeking systematic independent reviews of its program and improving their surveys based on these reviews. Two of these reviews have been conducted by the National Research Council (NRC)
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The workshop will have the specific objec tive of identifying issues for the collection of intramural research and development expenditures by nonprofit organizations, considering the goals, content, statistical methodology, data quality, and data products associated with this data collection. The workshop will also consider data uses and the needs of data users and the relevance and adequacy of the resulting products for meeting current and emerg ing data needs for information about research and development expenditures for this sector. Following the workshop, a designated rapporteur will prepare an individually authored summary of the presentations and discussion.
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Since the previous survey of R&D in the "other nonprofit" sector, the gap in information has been filled by model-based estimates of nonprofit R&D in the NCSES National Patterns of R&D Resources releases (National Science Foundation, n.d.-a) , using elasticity ratios derived from the 1996– 1997 survey data.
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compares to the other major nations." The new R&D survey on the nonprofit sector is expected to generate estimates for the sector, plus contribute to data requirements of the international science and technology community. A primary objective of this new survey, from the viewpoint of NCSES, is to fill data gaps in the National Patterns of R&D Resources, and to do so 1 The Higher Education Research and Development Survey, also referred to as HERD, is an annual census of institutions that expended at least $150,000 in separately budgeted R&D in the fiscal year.
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to consider the broader usefulness and relevance of the data for meeting current and emerging data needs, including fostering a better understanding of the nature of the nonprofit sector and its R&D activities. Given these dual purposes, the steering committee identified nine topics important to consider through presentations and discussions at the workshop: 1.
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It is important to note that a workshop is not a consensus activity -- no consensus recommendations or other findings are offered in this report. Individual presenters, steering committee members, and workshop participants were encouraged to offer their own opinions and suggested strategies, and these are reported, with attribution, throughout this report.
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These themes are consistent with the steering committee's initial outline of issues, and include • NCSES' need to fill the data gaps in the National Patterns of R&D Resources release in a way that is compatible for between-sector and international comparisons; • the additional need to facilitate a more accurate statistical portrait of the scope and nature of R&D in the nonprofit sector, and the inherent tension between this need and NCSES' primary need for the survey; • an understanding of the scope of the nonprofit sector, and types of organizations that should be included; • the unique nature of R&D within the nonprofit sector, and whether these potential R&D activities should be measured in the survey; • the importance of statistical efficiency2 for estimating R&D expen ditures at the national level, versus designing a sample that is inclusive of the diversity of R&D in the entire sector; • the complex relationships existing among organizations in the nonprofit sector, and the impact these relationships may have on building a sampling frame and selecting a statistically efficient sample; • the need to establish and maintain communication between NCSES and the nonprofit sector; • strategies for achieving the correct respondent within an organi zation for completing the survey; • strategies for obtaining a good response rate; and • a need to move away from the questionnaire format used in the 1996–1997 survey and to develop strategies for "screening in" respondents through a redesign of screening questions. 2 The statistical efficiency of an estimate from a sample survey refers to the quality of the estimate (such as the size of the variance or mean squared error)
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Therefore, all views expressed are those of the workshop presenters and other workshop participants.
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