Experimental Approaches to Improving Research Funding Programs

On March 14-15, 2023, the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a 2-day workshop in Washington, DC to explore the use of data, research, and experiments to improve the processes for and outcomes of federal funding of scientific research. The workshop brought together researchers in the science of science funding and practitioners from government and the private sector with experience supporting or carrying out experimentation and evaluation to discuss illustrative examples of the use of experimentation from the United States and abroad; consider methods of evaluation; and foster relationships for future experimentation.

• Front Matter
• Introduction
• 1 Keynote Presentations
• 2 Experiments by U.S. Federal Agencies
• 3 The International Context: New Models for Supporting Science
• 4 Nongovernmental Perspectives on Experiments
• 5 Challenges with Experimentation in U.S. Federal Agencies
• 6 Structuring Support for Experimentation in Government
• 7 Models for Institutionalizing Experimentation in U.S. Federal Agencies
• 8 Closing Roundtable
• Appendixes
• Appendix A: Workshop Agenda
• Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Speakers