If those who discover new ideas could appropriate all the benefits, then, at least in principle, market mechanisms could efficiently determine investments in science. But private and collective incentives diverge in the presence of externalities. We just do not know in advance where, when, or for whom research results will become valuable. Because predicting or charging for such applications can be difficult, markets tend to underallocate and misallocate support for basic research. This grant funds research by a team led by Jason Owen-Smith to examine the return to investments in basic science by tracking how research grants eventually do and do not result in gainful applications. To collect, process, and study the detailed data necessary for carrying this out, Owen-Smith and his colleagues will establish an Institute for Research on Innovation and Science (IRIS) based at the University of Michigan.  Foundation funds will support data infrastructure at the University of Michigan, as well as infrastructure at the University of Chicago and Ohio State.

If those who discover new ideas could appropriate all the benefits, then, at least in principle, market mechanisms could efficiently determine investments in science. But private and collective incentives diverge in the presence of externalities. We just do not know in advance where, when, or for whom research results will become valuable. Because predicting or charging for such applications can be difficult, markets tend to underallocate and misallocate support for basic research. This grant supports efforts by economists Ufuk Akcigit of the University of Pennsylvania and Daron Acemoglu of Harvard University to study economic spillover effects associated with technological progress through the examination and modeling of innovation networks.  Using patent, citation, and other data, the team will construct new theoretical models of innovation spillovers, conduct detailed empirical analyses, and evaluate the counterfactual effects of various innovation policies.  Additional topics to be studied include the role of innovation policy in an open economy; the roots of major real-world innovations that led to significant spillovers; and the role networks play among inventors and financial institutions in generating spillovers.

This grant provides support for the construction, installation, and deployment of an infrared spectrograph for use by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to study star formation in the Milky Way.  The instrument, to be installed on the du Pont Telescope in Las Campanas, Chile, is identical to one already constructed and installed on the Sloan Telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, the SDSS’s primary observational instrument.  The new spectrograph, installed in the southern hemisphere, will allow SDSS researchers, working in collaboration with their Chilean colleagues, to make parallel observations both north and south of the equator, quadrupling the number of observable stars and exposing sections of the inner Milky Way unviewable from the north.  The project also promises to be a productive collaboration between American and Chilean astronomers, with nearly 20 Chilean scientists and engineers from multiple institutions directly involved in the installation and operation of the instrument.

This grant funds efforts by Micah Altman of MIT and Salil Vadhan of Harvard to develop practical tools that researchers and repositories can use to process private and proprietary data. The goal of the project is to provide workable procedures that improve the accessibility, reproducibility, and confidentiality of “big data” produced from a variety of sources.  Potential outputs include templates for legal agreements as well as software for depositing and accessing sensitive information. In addition, Altman, Vadhan, and their team plan to analyze the incentives and constraints on players throughout the system—from research funders to university administrators, and from potential data providers to academic publishers. For social scientists, working with personally identifiable data poses significant technical, administrative, and legal challenges.  Though the big data era has made these challenges increasingly ubiquitous, there is hardly anywhere to turn for reliable standards, precedents, or guidance.  This project aims to help rectify that pressing problem.

This grant provides funds for a new series, to be broadcast on PBS and Bloomberg Television, that will focus on the relationship between brain science and society.  To be hosted by award?winning journalist Charlie Rose and Nobel-winning biologist Eric Kandel, the new series will focus on a wide range of social issues connected with brain science, showing how much or how little the latest advances in neuroscience can help us understand our behavior. Topics will include aggression and the social amplification of violence; gender identity and gender-related differences in cognitive function; psychiatric disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, and eating disorders; the inheritance of acquired traits and the impact of growing up in adverse circumstances; the consequences of sports-induced head trauma; brain science and criminal justice; erasing traumatic memories; aging populations and brain function; and genetic counseling for neurological and psychiatric disorders.  The series will consist of 10, hour-long episodes with each episode featuring a panel of four-to-five experts in roundtable discussion.

Funds from this grant provide partial support for the pilot season of a new series, Science at the Movies, which will review the scientific content and characters of the films, television, and other entertainment media.  To be produced by CUNY TV and co-hosted by a team of one scientist and one journalist, the 13-episode, half-hour series aims to attract the general film?loving audience while casting a fun and friendly light on the scientific and technological content or the scientific implications, violations, or validations of popular entertainment.  Topics will include how the lives and work of real scientists differ from on-screen portrayals on screen, and how elements of science and technology underlie both everyday events and the most dramatic or comedic activities.  The show will air on CUNY TV and be offered for national distribution to PBS affiliates.

This grant provides renewed support to L.A. Theatre Works (LATW) for its ongoing efforts to record and disseminate high-quality science plays nationally and internationally.  The LATW features leading actors reading well-produced versions of new and established science-themed plays, including many originally commissioned and produced through the Foundation’s Theater program. Sixteen Foundation-supported plays have been broadcast on public radio and streamed online, with supplementary educational material provided, and then have been disseminated widely to schools and libraries. The current grant will support the recording and dissemination of an additional four Sloan-supported plays.  Each will be broadcast nationally on public radio and streamed online along with previous titles. Individual titles will also be licensed via the Public Radio Exchange (PRX), reaching an estimated 2.5 million people during the grant period.  Additional grant funds will support the expansion of LATW’s mobile app to further engage younger listeners.