Building Research Culture and Infrastructure

Building Research Culture and Infrastructure

Author: Ruth G. McRoy

Publisher: OUP USA

Published: 2012-01-25

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 0195399641

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Social work education programs, at all levels, are challenged to enhance their research culture and infrastructure. Since the 1991 NIMH-supported Task Force on Social Work Research report called for increasing research development in social work education programs, schools of social work have worked to develop research-supportive climates. This has helped social work scholars contribute to the knowledge base through the publication of original research, the expansion of the quantity and quality of faculty and student research endeavors, and the development of more empirically validated treatment approaches. Drawing on the extensive experience of the authors, this book provides a roadmap to building research capacity. It outlines specific leadership strategies that deans and directors can use to access federal research funds; incentivize interdisciplinary research; enhance mentorship relationships between senior and junior researchers; and make strategic hires. The book also identifies specific strategies to promote research by junior faculty and graduate students; forge partnerships between the university and local community and state agencies; identify potential grant funders; and write successful grants. Deans, directors, faculty, research administrators, and doctoral students will find this book a valuable step-by-step guide for fostering a research climate and increasing the likelihood of developing successful research initiatives.


Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research

Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2005-04-04

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 0309165482

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Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research examines current interdisciplinary research efforts and recommends ways to stimulate and support such research. Advances in science and engineering increasingly require the collaboration of scholars from various fields. This shift is driven by the need to address complex problems that cut across traditional disciplines, and the capacity of new technologies to both transform existing disciplines and generate new ones. At the same time, however, interdisciplinary research can be impeded by policies on hiring, promotion, tenure, proposal review, and resource allocation that favor traditional disciplines. This report identifies steps that researchers, teachers, students, institutions, funding organizations, and disciplinary societies can take to more effectively conduct, facilitate, and evaluate interdisciplinary research programs and projects. Throughout the report key concepts are illustrated with case studies and results of the committee's surveys of individual researchers and university provosts.


An Inclusive Academy

An Inclusive Academy

Author: Abigail J. Stewart

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2018-07-17

Total Pages: 529

ISBN-13: 026203784X

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How colleges and universities can live up to their ideals of diversity, and why inclusivity and excellence go hand in hand. Most colleges and universities embrace the ideals of diversity and inclusion, but many fall short, especially in the hiring, retention, and advancement of faculty who would more fully represent our diverse world—in particular women and people of color. In this book, Abigail Stewart and Virginia Valian argue that diversity and excellence go hand in hand and provide guidance for achieving both. Stewart and Valian, themselves senior academics, support their argument with comprehensive data from a range of disciplines. They show why merit is often overlooked; they offer statistics and examples of individual experiences of exclusion, such as being left out of crucial meetings; and they outline institutional practices that keep exclusion invisible, including reliance on proxies for excellence, such as prestige, that disadvantage outstanding candidates who are not members of the white male majority. Perhaps most important, Stewart and Valian provide practical advice for overcoming obstacles to inclusion. This advice is based on their experiences at their own universities, their consultations with faculty and administrators at many other institutions, and data on institutional change. Stewart and Valian offer recommendations for changing structures and practices so that people become successful in ways that benefit everyone. They describe better ways of searching for job candidates; evaluating candidates for hiring, tenure, and promotion; helping faculty succeed; and broadening rewards and recognition.


The CTSA Program at NIH

The CTSA Program at NIH

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2013-10-09

Total Pages: 179

ISBN-13: 0309284740

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In 2006 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) established the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program, recognizing the need for a new impetus to encourage clinical and translational research. At the time it was very difficult to translate basic and clinical research into clinical and community practice; making it difficult for individual patients and communities to receive its benefits. Since its creation the CTSA Program has expanded, with 61 sites spread across the nation's academic health centers and other institutions, hoping to provide catalysts and test beds for policies and practices that can benefit clinical and translation research organizations throughout the country. The NIH contracted with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2012 to conduct a study to assess and provide recommendations on appropriateness of the CTSA Program's mission and strategic goals and whether changes were needed. The study was also address the implementation of the program by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) while exploring the CTSA's contributions in the acceleration of the development of new therapeutics. A 13-member committee was established to head this task; the committee had collective expertise in community outreach and engagement, public health and health policy, bioethics, education and training, pharmaceutical research and development, program evaluation, clinical and biomedical research, and child health research. The CTSA Program at NIH: Opportunities for Advancing Clinical and Translational Research is the result of investigations into previous program evaluations and assessments, open-session meetings and conference class, and the review of scientific literature. Overall, the committee believes that the CTSA Program is significant to the advancement of clinical and translational research through its contributions. The Program would benefit from a variety of revisions, however, to make it more efficient and effective.


Evaluating and Improving Undergraduate Teaching in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

Evaluating and Improving Undergraduate Teaching in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2003-01-19

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 0309072778

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Economic, academic, and social forces are causing undergraduate schools to start a fresh examination of teaching effectiveness. Administrators face the complex task of developing equitable, predictable ways to evaluate, encourage, and reward good teaching in science, math, engineering, and technology. Evaluating, and Improving Undergraduate Teaching in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics offers a vision for systematic evaluation of teaching practices and academic programs, with recommendations to the various stakeholders in higher education about how to achieve change. What is good undergraduate teaching? This book discusses how to evaluate undergraduate teaching of science, mathematics, engineering, and technology and what characterizes effective teaching in these fields. Why has it been difficult for colleges and universities to address the question of teaching effectiveness? The committee explores the implications of differences between the research and teaching cultures-and how practices in rewarding researchers could be transferred to the teaching enterprise. How should administrators approach the evaluation of individual faculty members? And how should evaluation results be used? The committee discusses methodologies, offers practical guidelines, and points out pitfalls. Evaluating, and Improving Undergraduate Teaching in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics provides a blueprint for institutions ready to build effective evaluation programs for teaching in science fields.


Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2015-07-15

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 0309316855

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The past half-century has witnessed a dramatic increase in the scale and complexity of scientific research. The growing scale of science has been accompanied by a shift toward collaborative research, referred to as "team science." Scientific research is increasingly conducted by small teams and larger groups rather than individual investigators, but the challenges of collaboration can slow these teams' progress in achieving their scientific goals. How does a team-based approach work, and how can universities and research institutions support teams? Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science synthesizes and integrates the available research to provide guidance on assembling the science team; leadership, education and professional development for science teams and groups. It also examines institutional and organizational structures and policies to support science teams and identifies areas where further research is needed to help science teams and groups achieve their scientific and translational goals. This report offers major public policy recommendations for science research agencies and policymakers, as well as recommendations for individual scientists, disciplinary associations, and research universities. Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science will be of interest to university research administrators, team science leaders, science faculty, and graduate and postdoctoral students.


Handbook of Universities and Regional Development

Handbook of Universities and Regional Development

Author: Attila Varga

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2019-12-27

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 1784715719

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The Handbook on Universities and Regional Development offers a comprehensive and up-to-date insight into how academic institutions spur their surroundings. The volume sheds light on universities as regional development actors from a historical perspective by introducing institutional changes and discussing the interrelatedness of society, business and academia. It provides detailed investigations on various knowledge transfer mechanisms to help understand the diverse ways through which ideas and intellectual property can flow between universities and businesses. Detailed case studies from three continents (Europe, Asia, and America) demonstrate the highly contextual nature of the interactions between academia, industry and government.


The Success Case Method

The Success Case Method

Author: Robert O. Brinkerhoff

Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com

Published: 2010-06-21

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 145877757X

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Each year, organizations spend millions of dollars trying out new innovations and improvements-and millions will be wasted if they can't quickly find out what's working and what is not. The Success Case Method offers a breakthrough evaluation technique that is easier, faster, and cheaper than competing approaches, and produces compelling evidence decision-makers can actually use. Because it seeks out the best stories of how real individuals have actually used innovations, The Success Case Method can ferret out success no matter how small or infrequent. It can salvage the few ''gems'' of success from a larger initiative that is not doing well or find out how to make a partially successful effort even more successful. The practical methods and tools in this book can help those who initiate and foster change, including leaders, executives, managers, consultants, training directors, and anyone else who is trying to make things work better in organizations get the greatest returns for their investments.


When Can You Trust the Experts?

When Can You Trust the Experts?

Author: Daniel T. Willingham

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2012-06-20

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 1118233271

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Clear, easy principles to spot what's nonsense and what's reliable Each year, teachers, administrators, and parents face a barrage of new education software, games, workbooks, and professional development programs purporting to be "based on the latest research." While some of these products are rooted in solid science, the research behind many others is grossly exaggerated. This new book, written by a top thought leader, helps everyday teachers, administrators, and family members—who don't have years of statistics courses under their belts—separate the wheat from the chaff and determine which new educational approaches are scientifically supported and worth adopting. Author's first book, Why Don't Students Like School?, catapulted him to superstar status in the field of education Willingham's work has been hailed as "brilliant analysis" by The Wall Street Journal and "a triumph" by The Washington Post Author blogs for The Washington Post and Brittanica.com, and writes a column for American Educator In this insightful book, thought leader and bestselling author Dan Willingham offers an easy, reliable way to discern which programs are scientifically supported and which are the equivalent of "educational snake oil."