The Value of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences to National Priorities A Report for the National Science Foundation (2017) / Chapter Skim
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THE TASK
THE TASK
Pages 3-10
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The committee was specifically charged with answering the following questions: • o the SBE sciences advance NSF mission areas of national health, prosperity and welfare; secur D ing the national defense; and promoting the progress of science? • Do the SBE sciences advance the missions of other federal agencies?
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• W hat priorities for NSF investment, if any, are suggested by prior National Academies reports? What other important elements should be considered as part of a future NSF strategic planning process?
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These criteria were applied both to research identified in National Academies reports published mainly in the past 20 years and to other research identified by committee members.1 The commit tee concluded that the SBE sciences both advance NSF's mission and serve well many of the most important needs of society. The examples provided in this report illustrate how these fields of study can further NSF's mission, the missions of other federal agencies, and the work of industry and business.
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For instance, meeting many of the challenges recognized in a 2008 report of the National Academy of Engineering, Grand Challenges for Engineering, will require collaboration with the SBE sciences.7 Meeting the challenge to secure cyberspace, for example, will require research on how people interact with computers, the Internet, and information in ways that increase the risk 6 The Value of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences to National Priorities R03191 Value SBE Sciences.indd 6 6/29/17 12:19 PM
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Methods and tools for how to ask questions effectively, how to maximize responses, and how to identify rep resentative samples were developed through SBE research.11 Such under standings and tools are now com monplace in society. The SBE sciences enable the pre diction of many kinds of outcomes with greater certainty, including the success or failure of corporate strate gies, economic policies, and legislative agendas.12,13,14 But while people readily recognize a need for experts from medical research, physics, or biology, when think ing about predicting or explaining human behavior people tend to use "common sense" derived from their own accumulated experiences and anecdotes.
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ficient, and they use knowledge, tools, and methods from SBE research to understand markets, develop innovations, and inform decisions.24,25,26 Federal, state, and local governments also have begun to recognize the utility of the SBE sciences to both the formulation of policy and the testing of which policies do or do not work in practice.27 THE CORE MISSION OF NSF The federal government has a long history of investment in SBE research. Congress created NSF in 1950 with the unique mission "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense."28 Although other, mission-driven federal agencies fund basic research in the SBE sciences -- including the National Institutes of Health of the U.S.
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The social, behavioral, and economic sciences lead to better under CONCLUSION 1 standing of the human aspects of the natural world, contributing knowledge, methods, and tools that further the mission of the National Science Foundation to advance health, prosperity and welfare, national defense, and progress in science. The next four sections of the report provide discussion and examples of this conclusion in the areas of health; prosperity and welfare; national defense; and advancing progress in science with innova tive theories, methods, and tools.
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Newer developments have moved beyond paired kidney exchange to multiperson chains of donors and recipients that reduce patient waiting times for kidney transplants and improve health outcomes.34 Thousands of kidney transplants have been made possible that other wise would not have occurred due to this process.35 All of these applications evolved from the earliest form of game theory. NSF-funded research building on game theory has led to other Nobel Prize-winning advances in economics36 and has been applied to many other diverse areas, from the business models of Google, Facebook, and other technology companies to the management of leasing rights for offshore oil fields and forests.37 1962 ApplicaƟon 1944-1951 of game 1988 1999 2003 Origins of theory to ApplicaƟon 1997 Algorithmic Google Ad game matching of residency Overture mechanism Sense theory markets matching founded design founded 1961 1984 1995 1998 2003 ApplicaƟon Residency Economic Google Kidney of game matching mechanism founded exchange theory to algorithm design began aucƟons 10 The Value of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences to National Priorities R03191 Value SBE Sciences.indd 10 6/29/17 12:19 PM
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