MOD: Models of International Research Collaboration

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

As world research capacity expands rapidly, the United States science and engineering enterprise finds itself in a new position. Decades of U.S. dominance in science and engineering research helped create U.S. leadership in emerging industries such as information and biotechnology. But U.S. science and engineering research are likely in coming decades to take their place among many strong players on a global scene. Europe, Japan and Korea are already international powers in research and development, and China, India, Brazil, and South Africa are rapidly expanding their capabilities. Under these circumstances, the capacity to monitor the world research front and absorb research knowledge from other countries is more important than ever for the United States. Innovation in the U.S. will thrive best in an open information environment in which our ties to the rest of world research and development are strong. Many factors will contribute to the absorptive capacity of U.S. research. International collaboration is certainly one. This project explores the benefits of international collaboration for U.S. researchers and their collaborators. Several models for international collaboration exist, including informal versus formal and small versus big science. In order to take a close look at the benefits of collaboration under these models, this study focuses on two fields, bio-fuels and materials science. To compare informal with formal models, an examination is done of each area before and after a formal policy intervention in 2007 that encourages international collaboration (in bio-fuels the U.S.-Brazil ethanol agreement and in materials science the start of the user program at the Spallation Neutron Source). In addition, these examples allow examination of both a small science area and a big science project in the periods before and after a formal collaboration program starts. The research plan draws on literature- and funding-based data, interviews and a survey. The research contributes to the literature on international research collaboration through its rich mix of methods and its empirical focus on results of the collaborations. It also contributes with comparative design. The interview data compares participants in the interventions with other international collaborators in the same research areas and the secondary and survey data provides comparative information on general patterns of collaboration in those research areas, both before and during the intervention. Through before-after, participant-non-participant, North-South, and U.S.-partner comparisons, sources, benefits, costs, and barriers of a variety of dimensions of international research collaboration are identified. Questions such as whether benefits are mutual, whether the inclusion of junior researchers brings cumulative benefits over time, and whether the two types of programs under investigation have different effects are also explored. The project will contribute to teaching, training, and learning by involving graduate and undergraduate students at Georgia Tech in every stage of the research, giving them hands-on training in three different methods. The student team will be diverse in terms of both gender and ethnicity, and both senior investigators are women. The project strengthens science and innovation policy networks between Georgia Tech and Colombia by following through on dissertation research of a team member. The results will be disseminated broadly with both scholarly and policy audiences, and will contribute to moving global innovation forward more quickly by providing information on models of effective collaboration.