Fostering Transformative Research in the Geographical Sciences (2019) / Chapter Skim
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1 What Is Transformative Research?
1 What Is Transformative Research?
Pages 9-16
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From page 9... ...
Because of its positive feedback and impact, transformative research can be regarded as inherently more valuable than conventional research. In this chapter, the committee cites examples of funding agencies that clearly regard transformative research as something to be encouraged and funded through special programs.
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From page 10... ...
In the United Kingdom, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) , roughly equivalent to NSF's Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences, settled on the following definition of transformative research: "research ideas at the frontiers of the social sciences, enabling research which challenges current thinking.
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From page 11... ...
NIH has four award programs in its HRHR portfolio -- the Early Independence Award, the New Innovator Award, the Pioneer Award, and the Transformative Research Award -- with each drawing on the NIH Common Fund, and thus above the programs of the individual institutes and all closely associated with the director. The Transformative Research Award is described as being "created specifically to support exceptionally innovative and/or unconventional research projects that have the potential to create or overturn fundamental paradigms.
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From page 12... ...
In work partly supported by NIH, they analyzed 35 of the awards given in the first 3 years of HRHR funding, using a variety of data sources including publications resulting from the work and biographical characteristics of the PIs. When examining potential predictive indicators of success in transformative research, they found that: • Researchers conducting transformative research tend to have a similar number of publications as com pared with similarly excellent researchers;
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From page 13... ...
It appears that proposals that are selected by programs designed to foster transformative research have greater impact, and are more innovative on reflection, than the work of similarly excellent researchers that is funded by more conventional programs. Yet, there is ample anecdotal evidence of the highly controversial nature and long-delayed acceptance of many transformative ideas, such as anthropogenic climate change (discussed in Chapter 2)
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From page 14... ...
An ad hoc committee will organize a public workshop as a primary source of information to examine transformative research as it has influenced the evolution of the geographical sciences to provide insight into how transformative research evolved in the past so that it can be encouraged in the future. In particular, the committee will seek insights into three questions noted below, drawing principally on the workshop presentations and discussions: 1.
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From page 15... ...
These white papers provided a starting point for discussions, as well as a rich source of information for the committee to draw on as it wrote this report. The first three questions produced useful input to the report.
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