Advancing the Science of Science Funding Conference at the NBER Summer Institute
Supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Cambridge, MA July 18-19, 2019
Royal Sonesta Hotel
Skyline Rooms A and B
Program
Day 1: Thursday July 18th
8:00 am Coffee and Pastries
8:45-9:00: INTRODUCTION AND WELCOME: Reinhilde and Paula
9:00-12:00 SESSION I: ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF SCIENCE FUNDING
Chair: Adam Jaffe (TBC)
- Relationship of funding to Patents:
Lee Fleming* (Stanford University), H. Greene, G. Li, M. Marx, D. Yao U.S. innovation relies increasingly upon
Federal research
Discussant: Neil Thompson
- Relationship of funding to Publishing:
R. Sattari & Bruce Weinberg* (Ohio State University): The Marginal Scientific Product of Investments in Science
Discussant: Pierre Azoulay
10:45-11:00: COFFEE BREAK
- Impact on Policy Making
Danil Mikhailov & Chonnettia Jones*, (Wellcome Trust, Data science methods to assess the influence of scientific research on policy
J. Hjort* (Columbia University), D; Moreira, G.Rao, J.F. Santini, How Research Affects Policy: Experimental Evidence from 2,150 Brazilian Municipalities
Discussants: Kei Koizuma (AAAS) and Daniel Goroff (Alfred P. Sloan Foundation)
General discussion
12:15 TO 1:00: LUNCH
1:00- 2:30: SESSION II: RISK TAKING IN SCIENCE FUNDING
Chair: Chiara Franzoni
- Introduction by the Chair: Chiara Franzoni—insights from literature and from small scale survey
- Examples of Funders approaches for increasing risk taking:
• NIH Directors Award for high risk high reward; Nicole Garbarini (NIH)
• Pew Foundation, Kara Coleman (Pew Charitable Trust)
• Scialog, Dr. Richard Wiener (Research Corporation)
• ERC, Theodore Papazoglou
- Assessing risk in selection bias and treatment effect
Veugelers (KU Leuven), Stephan & Wang: Do funding agencies select and enable risky research: Evidence from ERC using novelty as a proxy of risk taking
Discussant: Karim Lakhani (Harvard)
- Open discussion
2:30-2:45: COFFEE BREAK
2:45-4:15 : SESSION III LINKING SCIENCE/PUBLICATIONS TO TECHNOLOGY/PATENTS
Chair: Ben Jones
Data-methodology session: what is currently the state of the art on how to link science and technology? Best practices? Pitfalls? How to move forward?
4:15-5:15 SESSION IV: SSF FUNDED SMALL PROJECTS PRESENTATIONS
Chair: Kaye Husband-Feeling
- De Ratenfosse G. (EPFL)* & E. Raiteri, The prevalence of NIH-funded research in commercial products
- Discussants: Anna Calcagno (NIGMS, NIH) and Danielle Li (MIT)
A short presentation of all other proposals selected :
(Adam Jaffe (MIT and Brandeis); Bev Holmes, the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research
Charles Ayoubi, Fabiana Visentin and Michelle Pezzoni; Sandra Barbosu, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation;
Chiara Franzonie (Politechnico de Milano) and Henry Sauermann; Experiment.com;
Valentina Tartari (Copenhagen Business School); Henrik Fosse and Rikke Christensen (TBC) Novo Nordisk Foundation;
5:15: ADJOURN
Dinner: 7:00 Bambara Restaurant
Across the street from the Royal Sonesta Hotel
Day Two: Friday July 19th
8:30 am Coffee and Pastries
9:00- 10:30 SESSION V: ORGANIZING SCIENCE FUNDING
Chair: Megan MacGarvie
- Wilhelm, M. (LMU) Truly Legendary Freedom: Funding, Incentives and the Productivity of Scientists;
- Ottaviani, M. (Bocconi), Proportional Budget Allocation across Fields, Paylines, and Benchmarking: When Relative Demand Creates Its Own Supply
- Discussant: Tim Simcoe (BU), R. Veugelers (Former ERC Scientific Council); ERC: TBC
10:30-10:45 COFFEE BREAK
10:45-12:00 SESSION VI: SPECIAL TOPIC: GENDER BIASES IN SCIENCE FUNDING EVALUATION
Chair: Henry Sauermann
- Julian Kolev, Yuly Fuentes-Medel, and Fiona Murray (MIT), How Gendered Outcomes Arise Even Under Anonymous Evaluation: Is Blinded Review Enough?
- Discussant: Donna Ginther (University of Kansas); Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Zach Charat, Gates Foundation, TBC)
12:00-12:30 SESSION VII: MOVING THE SSF AGENDA FORWARD
- Chair: Reinhilde/Paula
- Views from funders; views from academics
12:30: ADJOURN