The Funding of Social Knowledge Production and Application: A Survey of Federal Agencies (1978)

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1 Introduction During the spring of 1976, the Study Project on Social Research and Development conducted a survey of spending on social research and development (R&D) by the federal government. A summary of the survey findings is presented in the final report of the Study Project on Social Research and Development, The Federal Investment in Knowl- edge of Social Problems. This volume presents the detailed findings of that survey. The data presented in this report were collected by a team of interviewers specifically hired and trained by the Study Project to conduct the survey. PURPOSE OF THE VOLUME The objectives of this volume are many. Its simplest aim is to describe the variety of activities funded by the federal government in social science and social research and development. These activities are now common throughout the government. Many agencies support studies employing econometric and simulation models; the use of cost-benefit analysis and survey research is common; complex social experiments are now being supported by several agencies. In many ways, this vol- ume demonstrates the acceptance of social R&D by the federal gov- ernment. Another aim of the volume is to "back up" the data presented in the final report of the Study Project. While the final report presents the

4 SCOPE OF THE SURVEY dollar totals for spending on social R&D in aggregate form, this volume serves to explain the nature of the activities underlying the dollar to- tals. The volume also serves to illustrate two of the major findings of the Study Project: o The social R&D activities of the federal government are decen- tralized and widely dispersed. The funding activities of over 180 agen- cies, bureaus, offices, and divisions are presented in this volume. o The majority of social R&D activities funded by the federal gov- ernment are supported by "operating agencies." The Study Project classified the organizational location of social R&D activities as operat- ing, R&D, policy-making, and statistical agencies. (This classification scheme is discussed in Chapter 2.) Contrary to popular belief, the Study Project found that agencies devoted exclusively to R&D—such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Education—fund only a small proportion of the total federal spending on social research and development activities. Of the agencies pre- sented in this volume, only 21 were classified as R&D agencies. A more ambitious aim of this volume is to serve as a dissemination mechanism of social R&D activities. The Study Project found that federal agencies are often weak in disseminating the results of their R&D activities. In the terminology of the Study Project, the "linkage" between the federal government and the various audiences of social R&D activities needs to be strengthened. In a limited way, this volume attempts to serve as a link between the government and the many, diverse audiences of federal social R&D activities. This volume at- tempts to let those outside—and even those inside—the government know what social R&D activities the federal government is funding. In addition to describing the major social R&D programs of an agency, the volume cites publications that discuss agency social knowledge production and application activities in more detail.1 These publica- tions frequently contain lists of projects funded by agencies and infor- mation on how those project reports can be obtained. The Study Project uses a new classification system for social R&D activities. The Study Project felt that a new framework was needed to 'The list of key agency publications is not exhaustive. It includes publications (primarily R&D annual reports, publication lists, and project lists) obtained in the course of the Study Project's work. We were unable to obtain publications from some agencies. If a reader is interested in more information about the social knowledge production and application activities of a specific agency, we suggest writing to that agency directly.

Introduction 5 more accurately describe the nature of the social R&D system. It found that the traditional R&D framework did not adequately describe the variety of activities presently funded under the rubric "social R&D." The Study Project devised a new framework for analyzing social R&D activities—a framework of knowledge production and application. The Study Project found that there is currently very little oversight of the social R&D system. Thus, another purpose of this volume is to provide an overview of the entire federal social R&D system, which might enable others to evaluate the system by asking such questions as: Are there some important problems not being addressed by the fed- eral government's social R&D? Does the allocation among policy areas presented make sense? Is the investment in a single category—for example, general purpose statistics—too little or too great? LIMITATIONS ON THE SURVEY The Study Project has surveyed, not evaluated, the social R&D carried out by federal agencies. This volume does not attempt to make any judgments as to whether agencies are funding the right sorts of ac- tivities or whether the quality of activities is high or low. The Study Project's goal is to provide the raw material for others to begin to make such judgments. This volume does not discuss or evaluate the man- agement of social R&D. The emphasis is placed on describing what the agencies do—not how well they do it. This volume does not present any information on agency funding procedures and should not be viewed as a grants or contracts direc- tory.2 Information on agency funding policies and procedures can be obtained by writing the specific agencies. Many agency addresses have been provided. Our objective in this volume is to describe areas of 2Many grants, contracts, and fellowships directories are available. Among the more recent are: Research Support for Political Scientists, published by the American Political Science Association (1527 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036) Policy Grants Directory, published by the Policy Studies Organization (361 Lincoln Hall, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801) Annual Register of Grant Support 1977-78, published by Marquis Academic Media (200 East Ohio Street, Chicago, Illinois 60611) The first two volumes present excellent bibliographies of other sources of information on research support.

6 SCOPE OF THE SURVEY agency funding and types of projects and to provide information on major agency publications. This volume presents only the social R&D activities of the executive branch of the federal government. It was deemed beyond the scope of the Study Project to survey social R&D in the legislative and judicial branches. Fact-finding commissions funded by the executive branch were also excluded, but a list of them is presented in the Appendix. A limited number of independent executive agencies were not surveyed, primarily because preliminary analysis did not indicate any social R&D activities funded by them.3 There are also limitations on the data for federal dollar obligations. Obtaining data on federal expenditures is an imprecise business. Budget figures are subject to continual change and are never final until a year after the fiscal year is completed and a final accounting is made. The Study Project's data were collected for fiscal years 1975, 1976, and 1977 during spring 1976, near the midpoint of the middle fiscal year in the three-year budget cycle. The data represent estimates of final figures for fiscal 1975 and estimates of expected obligations for fiscal 1976 and 1977. The figures for fiscal 1976 were obtained in the final quarter of that fiscal year and are based on obligations made during the first three quarters of the year plus estimates of fourth-quarter obligations. In many agencies, the majority of agency obligations are made in the fourth quarter. Thus, there was still much uncertainty during spring 1976 as to what the final figures for that year would be. The data for fiscal 1977, which were subject to even more changes, are estimates based on President Ford's January fiscal 1977 budget; they do not reflect subsequent congressional actions. A decision was made not to change the figures collected in the survey on the basis of subsequent congressional actions. Thus, some of the figures for fiscal 1977—which were the most likely to change of the data presented in this volume—are not final. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was surveyed, but no social knowledge production and application activities were found. NASA did, however, report obligations of $1.3 million in the social sciences for fiscal 1977 to the NSF annual survey of federal funds for R&D. Interviews with NASA staff did not verify or explain what ac- tivities those obligations supported. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) presented a unique problem. Interviews with the staff were deemed unfeasible. The only data available on the CIA were contained in the State Department's Foreign Affairs Research Report, which reported that $233.000 was spent on externally funded foreign affairs research in fiscal 1975. No figures were avail- able for their in-house research.

Introduction 7 The manner in which agency records are kept is another limitation on the precision of agency obligations for social R&D. The Study Project found that the larger the role of social R&D in an agency, the easier it was to obtain budgetary figures. Agencies that specialized in R&D— such as NSF and the National Institute of Mental Health—created few problems. More problems were encountered in agencies for which so- cial R&D is a minor activity, and consequently the figures obtained from these agencies are rougher and more imprecise. It should also be noted that social R&D programs are infrequently identified as line items in an agency's budget. When they are clearly identified as line items, the precision of the dollar figures increases greatly. In most cases, agency personnel must separate the social R&D component from a larger line item. This is a difficult task and the results are often imprecise. Dollar figures were collected for the Study Project survey at the program level, not at the level of individual projects. While the defini- tion of programs varied slightly among agencies, programs most fre- quently represent collections of projects on a particular topic. In spring 1976, each program had a fairly accurate estimate of what its final obligations would be for fiscal 1976. It should be noted, however, that some of the projects or programs presented here may not have actually been funded due to budget or program changes. Data were not based on individual projects for several reasons. First, fiscal 1976 and fiscal 1977 were not yet ended and all the projects for those years had not yet been selected. Second, it was deemed all but impossible to collect and categorize all the projects funded on social problems by the federal government for three fiscal years. Three other budgetary caveats should be noted. First, between fiscal 1976 and fiscal 1977, the start of the fiscal year was changed by the federal government from July 1 to October 1. This created a one-time "transition quarter" between fiscal 1976 and fiscal 1977. Because of the added complexity in collecting data for the transition quarter, a decision was made to exclude that quarter from the survey. Second, figures were collected on obligations and not outlays. While outlays represent the actual payment of federal funds in a given year, obliga- tions are financial commitments made by a federal agency that will require outlays during the current or some future fiscal year. Obliga- tions were judged to be a better indicator for the purposes of the sur- vey. Third, the Study Project followed the convention of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and NSF and included "overhead" or "salaries and expenses" in the data collected for each program.

g SCOPE OF THE SURVEY PROCEDURES USED IN THE SURVEY The Study Project survey, conducted between April and June 1976. involved approximately 180 agencies. The Study Project uses the term "agency" to refer to any organizational unit (such as bureau, division, office, service, etc.) of a cabinet-level department. It also refers to "independent" agencies whose principal executive officer reports di- rectly to the President.4 The survey was conducted by a team of nine interviewers hired and trained by the Study Project. The author of this volume served as survey director. Because the knowledge production and application framework was novel and potentially difficult, the Study Project felt that personal interviews were needed to assist agency personnel in developing dollar figures for each category. We felt that we could not rely on self-reported data and we could better maintain quality control by collecting the data ourselves. Over 300 individuals were contacted in the course of the survey. The first step in the study was to analyze the two major sources of existing data on federal research and development: (1) OMB'S "Appen- dix P," which appears annually in the Special Analyses of the Budget of the United States, and (2) NSF'S annual survey of Federal Funds for Research, Development, and Other Scientific Activities.' Previous- year publications of NSF and OMB were examined closely. In addition. OMB provided the Study Project with access to each agency's R&D and Statistical Budget Special Analysis submission for fiscal 1977 (OMB Circular A-ll, Exhibits 44 and 54). NSF provided us access to each agency's submission to the fiscal 1977 Federal Funds survey. Several other sources of information were also available to the Study Project. Most agencies provided a copy of their fiscal 1977 congres- sional budget justification, which was analyzed to find programs that included social knowledge production and application activities. In ad- dition, the Study Project had conducted a limited survey in 1974, the 4A number of federal agencies have been reorganized since the survey was conducted in spring 1976, and those reorganizations are reflected in this volume. For agencies that existed in 1976 but were later reorganized in some way, this volume presents detailed survey data along with information as to what has happened to the agencies as a result of reorganization. For agencies newly created since 1976, the volume provides descriptions of their functions along with information as to whether they encompass any functions or agencies included in the survey. 5Hereafter referred to as NSF Federal Funds. The Federal Funds series and other publi- cations in the NSF Survey of Science Resources Series are available from the U.S. Government Printing Office, as is the OMB Special Analyses.

Introduction 9 results of which were used by the survey team. Thus, a great deal was known about each agency prior to interviews with its staff. Agency R&D obligations, obtained from the NSF and OMB data, were used as the starting point for the survey. The "R&D" obligations were analyzed, first, to see whether or not they were "social" and, second, to see how those obligations might be used in the framework of social knowledge production and application. In many instances, interviews were held with the persons responsible for filling out the agency's R&D submission. In addition to fitting social R&D funds into a framework of social knowledge production and application, the survey team also obtained data on activities (such as program evaluation and statistics) that are not included in research and development figures. After the field interview with each agency was completed and the data were collected, they were then analyzed by Study Project staff and checked against all the sources discussed above. If questions arose concerning the data, follow-up phone calls were placed to the agency in question. In September 1976, the figures were sent to each agency for their comments. If the agency staff felt that the data were incorrect, they were asked to notify the Study Project.