last update: July 05, 2000
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STC-ERSP Program Details
Principal Investigator: Denis O. Gray Project Title: (1) Understanding and enhancing STC-related innovation processes (2) Development and Evaluation of the PDP workshop on innovations processes; (3) Administration (#28) Phone/Fax: 919 5151712/919 5151716 E-mail: denis_gray@ncsu.edu Research Plan Connectivity Outreach Components Requested Budget Allocation - Year 1 Plans for Additional Funding Research Plan Overall objectives To contribute to the center's success by identifying and enhancing factors that promote the innovation process (1) To conduct social science research that identifies organizational, managerial and other factors that contribute to scientific, technological and educational success in STCs and similar organizations. To use these findings to improve the operations and performance of the Center for Environmentally Responsible Solvents and Processes; (2) To develop and evaluate the effectiveness of the PDP innovation processes workshop; (3) To assist center management in coordination of education and human resource development, social science research and center management activities. Relation to overall objectives of the Center The innovation processes projects are designed to develop a better understanding of factors that affect the success of STC-type centers and when possible apply that information at the local-level. Thus, projects should contribute the center's research, educational and technology transfer objectives. Approach and Year 1-Year 5 timelines (1) Research and theory from the innovation processes, interorganizational interactions, technology transfer and technology management fields will be used to guide the research. Year 1: Drawing upon previous work, efforts will focus on development and application of a survey-feedback instrument(s) that is relevant to an STC. Feedback may be solicited from industry, advisory board members, students and faculty. Literature review and qualitative data collection will begin to identify factors that affect adoption and implementation of center results by industry. Year 2-5: Survey feedback data will be collected and feedback to center management to support continuous improvement. In consultation with NSF, tools that are deemed useful will be disseminated to other STCs. Focus groups and interviews will be used with industry and government sponsors to identify organization, role, and industry-sector variable that may influence adoption and successful deployment of center findings. Hypotheses will be developed about variables that predict technology transfer and commercialization success. Subsequently, a multiple case study strategy will be used to support the importance of specific variables. These results will be used to develop a questionnaire that can be used in a large cross-center study to statistically evaluate the relative importance of specific hypothesized predictors. In addition to scholarly products, results will be summarized into best practices monograph for sponsoring organizations. (2) The workshop will highlight theory, research and practice with particular emphasis on center and cooperative research issues. It will be implemented using relevant educational theories and practices and involve appropriate use of distance learning learning technologies. The impact of the workshop will be evaluated. Year 1: Workshop and workshop evluation methods and designed and piloted. Year 2-3: Workshop given multiple times (to different audiences); short-term and longer-term effectiveness evaluated; results reported in the literature and incorportated into subsequent PDP workshops. Year 3-5: Workshop refined based on participant feedback and expanded as necessary. Thrust area of this proposal (1) Social science research; (2) Integrated education and Human Resource development; (3) Administration Connectivity Collaborators, multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary components This research will involve all center participants over time, striving to support and enhance the innovation process within and outside the center through workshops, dissemination of research results, and technology deployment. It will also involve center participants in social science research to increase our understanding of center-related factors that influence technological and other outcomes.The Innovation workshop will be coordinated with the Collaboration workshop and Center PIs to support the educational needs of their students.Administrative work will be coordinated with the center management team and social science, education, and outreach efforts. Related work in other thrust areas Much of the work in the collaboration research projects is related to this project. However, while much of that work will focus on project and/or thrust level factors, my research will focus on center-level and inter-organizational factors. Sharing of resources (students, supplies, equipment, etc.) Resources, including personnel, space, and data collection equipment such as video cameras, tape recorders, and transcription machines will be shared among the research and workshop projects and the innovation research and workshop projects as needed. Outreach Components Suggested K-12 Outreach Ideas The innovation process workshop could be adapted for use in K-12 contexts. In addition, the social research activities could be shared with this audience showing how hard and social scientists can work collaboratively. Requested Budget Allocation - Year 1 Personnel salaries
Plans for Additional Funding Funding agencies/programs and planned dates of submission:There are a variety of funding opportunities to continue the line of research described in this proposal. I plan to pursue these opportunities within NSF's Division of Social, Behavioral and Economic Research (including the Innovation and Organizational Change, Science and Technology Studies and the Societal Dimensions of Engineeting, Science and Technology) and/or NIST around year two or three. Return to top. |
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