6/29/2010 8:00:00 AM By
E.J. Reedy
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has an exciting new survey in the works on microbusiness innovation (which was featured at our recent
Kauffman Interagency Forum on Entrepreneurship and Innovation Data). They are seeking interested contributors to the development of this work.
The Science Resources Statistics (SRS) Division of the National Science Foundation is planning a survey of microbusinesses (fewer than five employees). The microbusiness survey will collect data on R&D, innovation and related activities (such as sales of significantly improved goods and services; operating agreements and licensing activities; technology transfer; patents and intellectual property; and sources of technical knowledge), and measures of entrepreneurial effectiveness.
As we move forward in designing the survey we will be conducting workshops to help (1) gain a better perspective on data user needs and priorities of needs among users and (2) understand how microbusiness data will be used. Potential users include, but are not limited to, government officials at the federal, state, and local levels; international users; businesses and trade associations; and academic researchers. In addition, there are likely to be other categories of users that have not been specifically identified, as this is a new area of study.
If you are interested in contributing to the microbusiness discussion please forward your name to Audrey Kindlon at akindlon@nsf.gov.
3/25/2010 3:00:00 PM By
E.J. Reedy
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released a report highlighting the
role of small businesses in R&D activities in the United States. It shows increasing R&D activity by small businesses but also something I found troubling:
Microfirms spent 2.6% of company sales revenues on R&D activities in 2003, 10.1% in 2005, and 15.8% in 2007 (table 1).[5] However, the change over time reflects more a drop in company sales revenues than growth in R&D performance.
Here, microfirms are defined as firms with 5-24 employees. It'd seem for this particular group, many of which are likely younger firms, sales were being negatively effected well before the current recession. NSF is in the process of developing a new microbusiness R&D survey (under 5 employees) to be implemented in the next year or two. It's one of the most exciting projects I see going on at the U.S. statistical agencies currently as it will really be breaking new ground in survey work on small businesses and innovation. I'll be posting more on that work as it becomes available.
While on the topic of NSF, an information webinar in April should be of interest.
“Human Resources in Science and Technology: Surveys, Data, and Indicators from the National Science Foundation” will be presented by Nirmala Kannankutty on Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM Eastern time.
Webinar Description:
The Division of Science Resources Statistics (SRS) is a federal statistical agency housed at the National Science Foundation (NSF). SRS's role within NSF is to "provide a central clearinghouse for the collection, interpretation, and analysis of data on scientific and engineering resources, and to provide a source of information for policy formulation by other agencies of the Federal Government..." Within this mandate SRS is involved in collecting and disseminating information on R&D expenditures and activities and on human capital issues. The United States is unique among major industrialized nations in that it has directly invested in collecting detailed data from a variety of sources on the entire science and engineering pipeline. Each of the data sources came about from U.S. federal administrative needs. The sources have evolved into important elements for the study of higher education and the scientific workforce. In this webinar, these surveys and data sources are described. Key indicators regarding trends in U.S. science and engineering degree production, enrollments, and workforce are defined and described. The “Science and Engineering Indicators: 2010 and “Women, Minorities and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering” reports will be used as examples for these indicators. At the end of the webinar participants should be aware of data sources and how data are collected, indicators and reports from the NSF, and where to find more information from the NSF.
To register, please visit the SRMS web site at: http://www.amstat.org/sections/SRMS/webinar.cfm
1/5/2010 9:00:00 AM By
E.J. Reedy
I am not at the
American Economic Association (AEA) meeting this year as I recently became a father and am not going to be traveling for a while but that doesn't mean there aren't some really exciting sessions/papers being presented related to new advances in measuring innovation and entrepreneurship.
Ken Jarboe at the Athena Alliance did a great post on some of the papers focusing on intangible assets so I'll simply defer to Ken on that topic, but there are some other data papers worth a review:
Michael R. Darby (University of California-Los Angeles & NBER)
Lynne G. Zucker (University of California-Los Angeles & NBER)
John E. Jankowski (National Science Foundation)
Lynda Carlson (National Science Foundation)
Peter Gibson (U.S. Census Bureau)
Richard Hough (U.S. Census Bureau)
Ronald Lee (U.S. Census Bureau)
Brandon Shackelford (Twin Ravens Consulting)
Raymond Wolfe (National Science Foundation)
Jonathan Haskel (Imperial College Business School)
Alicia Robb (Beacon Economics)
John Haltiwanger (University of Maryland)
There are a couple of other great sessions on the agenda which don't have papers listed which I am trying to gather more info on, like one on measuring broadband impact, so I'll hopefully be able to post more in the coming week. For those at the AEA meeting who I've missed, hope it's going great!
10/21/2009 9:45:14 AM By
E.J. Reedy
I will be attending a mini-conference on user innovation which the National Science Foundation is putting on next month. It strikes me as something others might be interested in.
Research Mini-conference:
The Current Paradigm shift from Producer Innovation to Open User Innovation
Monday, 16 November 2009
1:00-4:30 pm
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard, Room 110
Arlington, VA 22230
Ever since Schumpeter (1934) promulgated his theory of economic development, economists and policymakers have assumed the dominant mode of innovation is a “producers’ model.” That is, it has been assumed that most important designs for innovations would originate from producers and be supplied to consumers via goods that were for sale. This long-held view of innovation has, in turn, led to public policies based on a theory of producer incentives.
Recently, however, innovation theory has been going through a paradigm shift – where it is increasingly recognized that open and collaborative user innovation increasingly dominates the traditional pattern of producer innovation under a wide range of conditions. Research needs now to explore and develop this new path. And related policy changes must be considered and assessed.
During this small, half-day workshop, a first session will compactly review what we currently know about open user innovation. A second session will provided interested meeting participants with a roundtable opportunity to discuss ideas and possible activities for a set of next steps in research and measurement on the user innovation topic.
Session I 1:00 to 2:30 pm
Presenters:
Prof. Eric Hippel, Sloan School of Management, MIT
Fred Gault, Professorial Fellow, UNU MERIT, and OECD
Prof. Jeroen de Jong, EIM and Rotterdam University, The Netherlands
TOPIC: Open User Innovation
What is it, what do we know about it, why is it driving out producer-centered innovation under many conditions? What are the important measurement and policy issues?
- General story of and evidence for the paradigm shift from closed, producer-centered innovation toward open, user innovation. Economic reasons for these changes.
- Data: Canada and Netherlands surveys on the frequency of user innovation among firms; UK survey of product modification and development by end users/consumers
- Status of measurement today: What we can measure reasonably well now; what are the key statistical indicator and data collection shortcomings?
- What are we likely to gain from better understanding and measurement of the user innovation phenomena? (business/economic opportunities, organization management, public policy, etc.)
Session II 2:45 to 4:30 pm
Session chair: Science Resources Statistics, NSF (to be announced)
TOPIC: Research and Policy Implications of Open User Innovation
To be conducted as a roundtable discussion among interested meeting participants. What are possible targets for the next stage of research on the topic?
- Participant reactions to and comments on Session I presentations
- Group perspective on where the user innovation ought to fit in the larger scheme of research on innovation and innovation policy analysis
- Discussion of what a next phase of user innovation research activities might most usefully look like.
- Discussion of next steps and action items.
Workshop Wrap-up and Close by 4:45 pm
(For questions about this conference, contact Mark Boroush, Div. of Science Resources Statistics, National Science Foundation, 703.292.8726, mboroush@nsf.gov)
8/10/2009 3:51:03 PM By
E.J. Reedy
I just got an email from
Tim Sturgeon at MIT which was quite encouraging. First, they have recently received notification from the National Science Foundation (NSF) recommending funding for the 2009 National Organizations Survey. While this is still some time away before researchers could use the data,
Tim and his co-principal investigators presented an overview of some of their plans in
November 2008 at the Kauffman Data Symposium. The issue of whether or not an entrepreneurship sample can be funded, as they propose, remains, and is something which this team is looking to Kauffman for. As such, I remain open to feedback on that portion of the proposal.
But outside of this, I wanted to highlight that apparently data collected in the Globalization Module of the 2008
General Social Survey will soon be available for analysis by application. The data will be posted to
NORC Data Enclave soon. They also have plans to make the National Organization Survey data available for scholarly use after collection. Kauffman sponsored a small
entrepreneurship module in the 2008 GSS, as well, which might be of interest.
8/6/2009 4:09:02 PM By
E.J. Reedy
7/22/2009 4:10:59 PM By
E.J. Reedy
The National Science Foundation has put out a
call for topics to be included in their 2011
Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) program. Comments can be
submitted through their website by September 15, 2009.
TOPICS AND AWARDS TO DATE - In FY 2007 and FY 2008 EFRI funded a total of 24 interdisciplinary proposals in four topic areas. Each proposal was funded at approximately a total of $2M over four years. You can review these EFRI topics and awards by accessing the EFRI website (www.nsf.gov/eng/efri). The FY 2009 Award decisions are currently underway. There have been 8 topics that have been chosen for use in EFRI solicitations thus far. The FY 2007 EFRI topics were: 1) Autonomously Reconfigurable Engineered Systems Enabled by CyberInfrastructure (ARES-CI); and 2) Cellular and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE). The FY 2008 EFRI topics were: 1) Cognitive Optimization and Prediction: From Neural Systems to Neurotechnology (COPN); and 2) Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructures (RESIN). The FY 2009 EFRI topics are: 1) BioSensing & BioActuation: Interface of Living and Engineered Systems (BSBA); and Hydrocarbons from Biomass (HyBi). The planned topics for the FY 2010 EFRI solicitation are: 1) Renewable Energy Storage (RESTOR); and 2) Science in Energy and Environmental Design (SEED): Engineering Sustainable Buildings.
7/6/2009 4:42:00 AM By
E.J. Reedy
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has been engaged in a wholesale redesign of many of their surveys in recent years and today I want to talk about one of these surveys, the Survey of Research and Development Expenditures at Universities and Colleges. NSF's proposed redesign includes the addition of a new module on commercialization and technology transfer, which I think is quite exciting. You can find out more about their proposed redesign or read some of our comments on the redesign below.
There is no doubt in my mind that the role universities are being asked to play in society has changed over recent years. Many universities are now seen to have a significant economic development mission. As such, I think universities should welcome many of the changes that NSF is proposing.
NSF letter 0609.pdf (110.81 kb)
NSF Attachment 1.pdf (558.88 kb)
3/26/2009 6:35:00 AM By
E.J. Reedy
The National Science Foundation has announced a call for proposals looking at the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The call recognizes the natural experimental situation for studying the science of science and innovation policy activities as a result of this large shock. Read the
actual call or find out more about the
NSF application process.
3/4/2009 9:18:00 AM By
E.J. Reedy
Many people who have considered applying to the National Science Foundation for funding are familiar with programs in specific discipliines, such as the
Social and Behavioral Sciences, but one of the most exciting, fairly recent programs that NSF has launched is around the Science of Science and Innovation Policy (SciSIP). SciSIP has an interest in funding quality research and data infrastructure development and has funded some projects which are squarely in the innovation and entrepreneurship space such as the
STARS database. Their
current solicitation has a deadline of September 9, 2009, but the hard work to develop proposals should probably begin right now for those interested.