Equity and Excellence in Research Funding

The tension between equity and excellence is fundamental in science policy. This tension might appear to be resolved through the use of merit-based evaluation as a criterion for research funding. This is not the case. Merit-based decision making alone is insufficient because of inequality aversion, a fundamental tendency of people to avoid extremely unequal distributions. The distribution of performance in science is extremely unequal, and no decision maker with the power to establish a distribution of public money would dare to match the level of inequality in research performance. We argue that decision makers who increase concentration of resources because they accept that research resources should be distributed according to merit probably implement less inequality than would be justified by differences in research performance. Here we show that the consequences are likely to be suppression of incentives for the very best scientists. The consequences for the performance of a national research system may be substantial. Decision makers are unaware of the issue, as they operate with distributional assumptions of normality that guide our everyday intuitions

Where Is Science Going?

Do researchers produce scientific and technical knowledge differently than they did ten years ago? What will scientific research look like ten years from now? Addressing such questions means looking at science from a dynamic systems perspective. Two recent books about the social system of science, by Ziman and by Gibbons, Limoges, Nowotny, Schwartzman, Scott, and Trow, accept this challenge and argue that the research enterprise is changing. This article uses bibliometric data to examine the extent and nature of changes identified by these authors, taking as an example British research. We use their theoretical frameworks to investigate five characteristics of research said to be increasingly pervasive-namely, application, interdisciplinarity, networking, internationalization, and concentration of resources. Results indicate that research may be becoming more interdisciplinary and that research is increasingly conducted more in networks, both domestic and international; but the data are more ambiguous regarding application and concentration. CR - Copyright © 1996 Sage Publications, Inc

What is a complex innovation system?

Innovation systems are sometimes referred to as complex systems, something that is intuitively understood but poorly defined. A complex system dynamically evolves in non-linear ways giving it unique properties that distinguish it from other systems. In particular, a common signature of complex systems is scale-invariant emergent properties. A scale-invariant property can be identified because it is solely described by a power law function, f(x) = kxα, where the exponent, α, is a measure of scale-invariance. The focus of this paper is to describe and illustrate that innovation systems have properties of a complex adaptive system. In particular scale-invariant emergent properties indicative of their complex nature that can be quantified and used to inform public policy. The global research system is an example of an innovation system. Peer-reviewed publications containing knowledge are a characteristic output. Citations or references to these articles are an indirect measure of the impact the knowledge has on the research community. Peer-reviewed papers indexed in Scopus and in the Web of Science were used as data sources to produce measures of sizes and impact. These measures are used to illustrate how scale-invariant properties can be identified and quantified. It is demonstrated that the distribution of impact has a reasonable likelihood of being scale-invariant with scaling exponents that tended toward a value of less than 3.0 with the passage of time and decreasing group sizes. Scale-invariant correlations are shown between the evolution of impact and size with time and between field impact and sizes at points in time. The recursive or self-similar nature of scale-invariance suggests that any smaller innovation system within the global research system is likely to be complex with scale-invariant properties too

Indicators for Complex Innovation Systems

Innovation systems are complex systems that can exhibit scaling and emergent properties. Predictable and measurable scaling correlations exist between measures commonly used to characterize innovation systems and national economies. This paper examines scaling relationships between GERD & GDP and between GDP & population and uses them to construct scale-independent indicators of the European and Canadian innovation systems. It discusses the theory and practice of building scale- independent indicators and scale-independent models. The theory is based on knowledge gathered from the study of complex systems. The practice is illustrated using OECD and Statistics Canada data commonly used to construct conventional indicators.complex system, scaling, power law, emergent properties, innovation, innovation system, indicators, scale-independent, model

Research Performance and Resource Allocation

Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy 2009This presentation was part of the session : Policy Actors and RelationshipsIn this paper we analyze an unacknowledged tension in decision making about the distribution of resources for research and innovation. There is tension because while decision makers accept that there is inequality in research performance, and that resources should be distributed according to merit, the resulting inequality in the allocation of public money seems so extreme that it violates deeply held principles of equity in a democratic society. We will pursue this argument by considering how resources and performance are distributed. Specifically we will examine the properties of probability distributions - power law and normal - and the felt experience of "living within" these distributions. The argument proceeds as follows. The paper begins by discussing the distinctions commonly made between probability distributions and then proposes a metaphorical classification of the shape of distributions. There follows a review of the empirical evidence that a power law distribution characterizes research performance. Next, equity in the merit-based distribution of resources is discussed and recent results from experimental economics are brought to bear on the question of the felt experience of resource distribution. This is used to argue that the normal distribution of resources will feel more comfortable than the power law distribution of resources both to those distributing resources and to those receiving resources. Unfortunately, we find that in research the comfortable distribution of resources creates an incentive structure that may suppress excellence. We believe there is a fundamental tension in between equity and excellence that can suppress incentives for excellence in innovation when equity is a concern in distributing resources. Although using merit based evaluation as a criterion for research funding would seem likely to resolve this tension, we argue here that this is not the case. Merit based decision making alone is insufficient because of inequity aversion, a fundamental tendency of people to avoid extremely unequal distributions. The distribution of performance in innovation is extremely unequal, and no decision maker with the power to establish a distribution of public money among recipients would dare to match that level of inequality. In fact, decision makers are likely unaware of the issue, as they no doubt operate with distributional assumptions of normality that guide our everyday intuitions. Further research is needed to ascertain how best to resolve the tension, though innovative funding mechanisms such as prizes hold promise. Second, avoiding a system in which one decision maker or decision making committee makes a comprehensive allocation of resources may help. The U.S. exemplifies this situation in that the total Federal research support received by any state, university or department is allocated through many competitive decisions each of comparatively minor consequence. It is possible that many small, inequity averse, merit based decisions may accumulate into a distribution that provides innovators with appropriate incentives. However, further research is needed to confirm this point

The Effect of Biotic Interactions on Latitudinal Range Expansion of Plant Species in Response to Climate Change.

As climates warm, plant species distributions are expected to shift poleward. When plants colonize new areas, they will interact with new suites of organisms and the resulting biotic interactions may differ from those within the plants’ original range. Large net differences in biotic interactions with natural enemies could affect plant performance and therefore colonization success and range expansion dynamics. Despite the potential importance of herbivores and pathogens to plant performance, few studies have quantified how interactions between plants and their natural enemies vary across range edges. I explored the potential for foliar herbivores and pathogens to influence plant range expansion using a combination of meta-analysis and field experiments. First, I investigated the effects of invertebrate herbivores on plant populations using a meta-regression approach, and found that herbivory often played important roles in reducing plant population growth rates, corroborating the potential importance of invertebrate herbivores to range expansion dynamics. In my next two chapters, I planted ten plant species along a latitudinal gradient that contained the range edges of some of these species. I then monitored seedling foliar herbivory and disease, providing some of the first empirical evidence on how above-ground interactions with natural enemies vary across latitudinal range edges. Four out of five species experienced less foliar disease when planted beyond their ranges. The amount of enemy escape was coarsely predicted by distance dependent dynamics within species ranges. However, the species included in this study did not benefit substantially from enemy escape; common levels of foliar damage had only minor effects on seedling survival. This suggests that the biotic interactions considered in this study are unlikely to have a major effect on colonization success for these particular species. Even so, this study provides insight into what conditions are likely to result in enemy release beyond range edges and the scenarios in which this may lead to increased performance during range expansion.PHDNatural Resources and EnvironmentUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113388/1/dwkatz_1.pd

Hospitals: The hidden research system

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A Study into the Role of International Collaborations in Higher Education to Enhance Research Capacity for Disaster Resilience

International collaborations in the context of Disaster Resilience (DR) is pivotal due to several reasons. It helps to propose ways to create more coherent international approaches on disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and resilience strengthening; it helps to enhance risk management capabilities by bridging the gap between science and legal/policy issues; it helps to address the issue of efficient management of trans-boundary crises. The need to optimise international cooperation in relation to resourcing research, capacity building to undertake research and facilitating its uptake is mentioned throughout the Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction 2015-2030 (SFDRR). Given their different capacities, as well as the linkage between the level of support provided to them and the extent to which they will be able to implement the SFDRR, developing countries require an enhanced provision of means of implementation, including adequate, sustainable and timely resources, through international cooperation and global partnerships for development, and continued international support, so as to strengthen their efforts to reduce disaster risk. The purpose of this paper is to examine the level of engagement of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in developing countries in Asia in international collaborations to improve their Research and Innovation (R&I) capacities in DR. Based on a project entitled ASCENT (Advancing Skills Creation and Enhancement), the findings of the paper focuses on three Asian countries, i.e. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Other than an extant literature review, the paper findings are drawn from a questionnaire survey carried out in eight HEIs from the said countries. There are already several regional initiatives that promote collaboration among HEIs towards building resilience. These networks should be supported and encouraged to grow. These global networks should collaborate with existing bodies to ensure that the role of higher education is understood and can be made use of. Findings of this paper supports the need for an enhanced international partnership to improve the science-policy interface in DR and to achieve the objectives of the SFDRR