Appendix C
Other Definitions of Research Infrastructure
The National Science Foundation established an Office of Science and Technology Infrastructure (OSTI) that funds such activities as:
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science and technology centers;
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major research instrumentation
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awards for the integration of research and education, early career awards, and model institutions of excellence (see National Science Foundation, 1998).
Almost all of the infrastructure funded by OSTI is in scientific fields other than the behavioral and social sciences.
The National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) provides “a comprehensive range of human, animal, technical, and other resources to enable biomedical research advances.” One of NCRR's eight objectives is to improve and maintain the nation's biomedical research infrastructure which includes:
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research tools and technologies;
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collaboration among scientists;
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science education and the public's understanding of science;
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enhanced capacity of mathematical modelling and bioinformatics; and
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construction and renovation of research facilities (National Institutes of Health, 1998).
These definitions of research infrastructure both differ somewhat in emphasis but include research instrumentation and research centers. But the NCRR and OSTI definitions also include science education. And the NCRR and the NSF/SBE directorate definitions explicitly mention information, i.e. bioinformatics and widely shared databases respectively.