Increasing Competitiveness of Investigators and Concentration Modeling: Quantitative Approaches

October, 2014
IDA document: D-5320
FFRDC: Science and Technology Policy Institute
Type: Documents
Authors:
Authors
Thomas W. Jones, Brian Q. Rieksts, Brian L. Zuckerman See more authors
This presentation was prepared for a meeting of the American Evaluation Association in October 2014. It describes two quantitative analyses conducted for the purpose of identifying the effect of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) on capacity development defined with respect to funding competitiveness. The first analysis used NSF awards and proposal data to compare the number of proposals submitted per investigator, success rates, award sizes, and awards per funded investigator for EPSCoR and non-EPSCoR jurisdictions. This comparison, by disaggregating the determinants of funding levels, identified the particular drivers of funding levels where EPSCoR and non-EPSCoR jurisdictions differ, and suggested hypotheses regarding EPSCoR impact. The second analysis used NSF awards data to conduct a time-series analysis of changes in funding levels in EPSCoR and non-EPSCoR jurisdictions, assessing the statistical significance of EPSCoR-related variables (years in program and number of EPSCoR-funded awards received).