IUCRC Evaluation Project: Model Redesign & Development

North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC

Investigators

Abstract

The NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRC) is considered the longest operating partnership-based center program supported by NSF. I/UCRCs bring industry and universities together to conduct cutting edge research that drives innovation and US competitive advantage. A key element of the I/UCRC Program, and one that is believed to have contributed to its success, is its commitment to a systematic and objective evaluation effort that provides value to both the NSF and to local centers. The project seeks to promote the progress of science by objectively evaluating and documenting the impact of I/UCRCs in order to provide the NSF with actionable, timely, data-based feedback, analysis and advice on the funded centers; and to identify and communicate I/UCRC best practices to NSF. Research and evaluation conducted through the I/UCRC Evaluation Project in the past has made a significant contribution to a broadened understanding of cooperative research in general and industry/university centers in particular. Our work has been a pioneer in exploring important new constructs including ?unintended consequences? of cooperative research, cost-avoidance benefits of membership, organizational commitment of center faculty and program sustainability of cooperative research centers. The project has also succeeded in being a training vehicle for the next generation of science and technology evaluators by promoting high quality research opportunities for the graduate students supported by the project. The proposed I/UCRC Evaluation Project addresses both accountability and improvement evaluation issues and involves both program-level and center-level elements. The accountability-driven element of the I/UCRC evaluation strategy focuses on collecting and reporting data on center and program-level inputs, outputs, outcomes and impacts. The improvement-oriented element of the I/UCRC evaluation strategy focuses on providing relatively real-time feedback on collected data to NSF (and local centers) to aid improvement and document best practices. The evaluation effort reports to NSF and involves collection of data on I/UCRC inputs, outputs, outcomes and impacts. We will address a number of new evaluation issues including integration of program-level data collection and databases with NSF internal efforts, and other support for the development of the NSF?s new I/UCRC evaluation model. The center-level evaluation depends on a team of on-site assessment coordinators who collect data at their site and provide feedback on their findings to the NSF. We will provide data analysis and reporting of this data for national benchmarking and other purposes.