NSF Org:	OAC Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC)
Recipient:	CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY
Initial Amendment Date:	August 22, 2008
Latest Amendment Date:	April 10, 2009
Award Number:	0838385
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Mark Suchman OAC  Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) CSE  Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering
Start Date:	September 15, 2008
End Date:	August 31, 2012 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$200,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$216,000.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2008 = $200,000.00 FY 2009 = $16,000.00
History of Investigator:	Sara Kiesler (Principal Investigator) kiesler@cs.cmu.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	Carnegie-Mellon University 5000 FORBES AVE PITTSBURGH PA  US  15213-3815 (412)268-8746
Sponsor Congressional District:	12
Primary Place of Performance:	Carnegie-Mellon University 5000 FORBES AVE PITTSBURGH PA  US  15213-3815
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	12
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	U3NKNFLNQ613
Parent UEI:	U3NKNFLNQ613
NSF Program(s):	HCC-Human-Centered Computing, VIRTUAL ORGANIZATIONS
Primary Program Source:	01000809DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01000910DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):	0000, 7642, 9102, 9251, OTHR
Program Element Code(s):	736700, 764200
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.070

ABSTRACT

Technology has made possible virtual research organizations involving researchers from different institutions. Virtual research organizations are expected to improve the speed of innovations and the creativity of scientists by bringing expertise to projects that would otherwise be unavailable. This project contributes to the scientific study of this new way of organizing scientific work and examines the problem of collaborating in virtual research organizations at the level of the collaboration and collaborators. The purpose of the research is to better understand how dispersed, interdisciplinary projects succeed, and to explore how virtual organizations might best use new tools and infrastructure.

This research builds on the investigators? prior work in understanding the Information Technology Research (ITR) initiative, which included close to 500 interdisciplinary technology research projects supported by the NSF. The proposed work entails an archival analysis of ITR final reports to discern the longer-term impact of the ITR projects and a longitudinal follow-up survey of ITR investigators. This research will contribute to organization science and social network theory, and to a better understanding of science and technology. The results will be useful for social scientists interested in organizations, computer scientists and technologists interested in tools and infrastructure that work, and decision and policy makers who invest in research.

Virtual research organizations in science and engineering are essential to the nation?s future and to solving global problems. This research will aid policy understanding of requirements of distributed interdisciplinary collaboration, improve metrics and approaches for evaluating the direct and indirect outcomes of research programs, suggest policies for future programs in innovative scientific research and education, and provide information to organizations, particularly departments and universities, about the institutional policies and practices that best support distributed interdisciplinary research.

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