Measuring Research and Development Expenditures in the U.S. Economy (2005) / Chapter Skim
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6 Measuring R&D Activity in Academic Institutions
6 Measuring R&D Activity in Academic Institutions
Pages 119-138
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From page 119... ...
SURVEY OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT EXPENDITURES AT UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES The Survey of Research and Development Expenditures at Universities and Colleges serves as the primary source of information on separately budgeted ROD expenditures in academia in the United States. The survey encompasses a large part of the ROD enterprise and a very important sector: universities account for about 13 percent of total ROD performed in the United States, and FFRDCs add another 6 percent of total spending.
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From page 120... ...
. However, the high unit response rate is tempered by bothersome high item nonresponse rates for some data items.
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From page 121... ...
However, although the survey is often presented as a continuous time series since 1972, when the survey became an annual collection after the initial four biennial collections, in reality the series has been subject to several perturbations (see Box 6-2)
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From page 122... ...
To detemmine which other institutions should be included in the current FY su vey, ORC Macro creates a list of all other S&E master s and bachelors' degree-granting institutions in the academic R&D expenditures survey universe that received federal obligations during any cycle from the previous 5 years. Institutions are included in the current cycle if they either reported cumulative expenditures for the last three full population su Veys of $250,000 or more or were reported by federal agencies to have cumulative obligations of more than $400,000 for the fiscal year plus the 4 previous years.
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From page 123... ...
general population because of the rich variety of indicators collected and published, There has been an attempt to update the data items collected to accommodate analysis of trends, primarily through refinement of definitions, inclusions, and collection of optional data items (see Box 6-3) , Together with the NSF-NIH Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering and the Survey of Science and Engineering Research Facilities, the survey gives a picture of scope and depth of an institution's science and engineering program, In order to accomplish this, the survey collects the following data items on a recurring basis: .
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From page 124... ...
1995 Optional items on indirect costs/cost-sharing, on funds passed through to subrecipients, and on cutoff value for reporting current fund research equipment expenditures. 1996 Added question on funds passed through to subrecipients to better address data discrepancy issue.
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From page 125... ...
The taxonomy of fields of science has enlarged its purpose over the years, much as have all classification systems. In this case, a system that was designed to assist academia in sorting out doctoral programs in order to obtain reputational rankings of similar programs and to independently describe offerings has been pressed into service to support data collection in government and ancillary organizations.
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From page 126... ...
. · The changing emphasis within the fields, such as the shift to biologically based chemistry relative to physical chemistry within this field.
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From page 127... ...
NSF had its own reasons for initiating collection of these data; most countries followed the recommendation in the Frascati Manual to include social sciences (including educational sciences) and the humanities in the higher education ROD expenditure surveys.
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From page 128... ...
Yet the NSF survey of Rc°iD expenditures at colleges and universities not only fails to facilitate the collection of information to measure interdisciplinary research, but also, in fact, actively discourages respondents from reporting interdisciplinary research. The survey directs reporters to categorize interdisciplinary projects individually according to the nature of the research performance and to prorate expenditures to report the proportion of each discipline involved when multiple fields of Sc°iE are encountered.
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From page 129... ...
The first two of these types of collaboration define interdisciplinary research of interest to the panel. The panel recommends that NSF engage in a program of outreach to the disciplines to begin to develop a standard concept of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research and, on an experimental basis, initiate a program to collect this information from a subset of academic and research institutions (Recommendation 6.2)
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From page 130... ...
However, due to their nature, many slip under the radar screen of the dedicated databases that are designed to track the formal collaborations that have the blessing of law. The registry of research joint ventures under the National Cooperative Research and Production Act identifies only 9 percent of the 3,000 U.S.-based collaborations over the period 1985-2000 involving nonprofit institutions, including universltles.
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From page 131... ...
In the survey design, all institutions in coverage with $150,000 or more in S8cE expenditures reported in the previous survey are included with certainty. The frame is updated each year by comparing the previous frame for this survey with the list of institutions in coverage for the NSF-NIH Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering and the list of academic institutions that receive federal S8cE R8cD funding as reported by federal agencies in the federal funds survey.
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From page 132... ...
As was the practice with the ORC Macro surveys, all missing data items, including those for nonrespondents, were imputed. No item nonresponse rates were reported, so it was not possible to assess the quality of the individual items in the report.
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From page 133... ...
NSF has conducted promising research to improve the imputation procedures. A memorandum by Brandon Shackelford of NSF outlined a promisrng approach for utilizing a regression model for imputation of the basic research totals, which has been subjected to initial tests (ORC Macro, no date)
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From page 134... ...
Nonprofit biomedical research organizations and independent hospitals that received at least $1 million in extramural research funding from NIH in the previous fiscal year are also covered in the population of interest. (The frame for the survey is defined by the academic RED expenditures for the academic institutions and an NIH list of nonprofit research institutions and independent hospitals that received funding from NIH.)
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From page 135... ...
1996 Two new questions were added list of non fxed equipment costing at least $1 million: amount of indirect costs recovered from federal grants and/or contracts that was includ ed in ''institution al f und s" if institution al f und s were a source of funding for any new construction or repair/renovation. In response to an OMB directive, a Large Facilities Follow-up Survey was added as a follow-up to the main facilities su vey.
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From page 136... ...
A cognitive study resulted in a rewording of the instructions and questions for greater clarity and some reformatting of the survey form. For example, some recent modifications include: · The description of what was included in research space was expanded to eliminate incompleteness in the description.
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From page 137... ...
. Survey Methodology issues The Survey of Scientific and Engineering Research Facilities is a biannual survey of academic institutions that includes a group of respondents not included in other NSF expenditure surveys—independent biomedical research facilities with NIH funding.
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From page 138... ...
For example, the new questions on computer technology and cyber infrastructure introduce new collection challenges, given the wide variety of institutional practices for computer and software procurement and inventory. The panel recommends that NSF continue to conduct a response analysis sunvey to determine the base quality of these new and difficult items on computer technology and cyber infrastructure, study nonresponse patterns, and make a commitment to a sustained program of research and development on these conceptual matters (Recommendation 6.8)
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