This study looks at how faculty view sponsored research projects and helps its readers to answer questions such as: how many sponsored research projects have faculty worked on? Which faculty defined by age, gender, academic field and many other variables have worked on sponsored research? How much interaction have faculty had with university officers entrusted with managing sponsored research? Have faculty benefited and, if so, how much, by alumni and industry boards designed to promote sponsored research? What is the outlook for sponsored research in the future and which research fields or topics might command the most attention? What percentage of faculty have had disputes with sponsored research partners? What percentage have signed non-disclosure agreements? How effective do faculty feel that their university has been in pursuing sponsored research projects?
Data in the report is broken out by many institutional and personal variables, enabling the study’s end users to pinpoint use of and evaluation of sponsored research and its institutional stewardship by gender, ethnicity, academic field, level of lifetime grant receipts and other variables of the survey participants. Data is based on a survey of 240 faculty, drawn predominantly from research universities and medical schools.
Just a few of this 94-page report’s many findings are that:
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Only 3.13% of sponsored research projects worked on by survey respondents involved multiple sponsors.
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More than 12% of survey respondents over the age of 60 found alumni or industry boards to be useful or critically important in their efforts to obtain and work on sponsored research projects.
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Respondents in earth and environmental sciences were the most likely to view their institution’s efforts to procure sponsored research projects as effective.
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The youngest faculty, those age 39 or under, had the highest incidence of disputes with sponsors.