Collaborative Research: Industries of Ideas: A prototype system for measuring the effects of research investments on regional firms and jobs

The Industries of Ideas: A prototype system for measuring the effects of research investments on regional firms and jobs proposes to test a first of its kind end-to-end data-driven pilot framework for assessing the impact of research investment in specific technology areas on corresponding regional firms and jobs. The CHIPS and Science Act supports investments in key technologies to drive innovation, create jobs, and establish technology hubs across the United States.

Understanding the impacts of such investments in the ten technology areas described in the CHIPS and Science Act can be challenging given current data and methods because new technologies such as AI, quantum computing, biomanufacturing and others are difficult to map to specific sectors and are also quickly evolving. There are no current means to systematically identify all the industries, employers, and workers which those technologies might affect.

To address these challenges the Industries of Ideas project will engage with various stakeholders through outreach and community engagement, create a prototype dashboard for effective accessible visualization and communication of relevant information, and develop metrics for effectiveness of the outcomes. The initial focus of this project is on the State of Ohio — a large, diverse state with much of the requisite data infrastructure already in place and with two rapidly emerging technology areas, viz., Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Electric Vehicles (EV).

The project will establish plans and partnerships for scaling this effort from a single state to the national level.

The tracking of investment impacts is challenging in multiple ways. Identifying investments in rapidly evolving, trans-disciplinary technology areas that do not align with existing classification systems is difficult. Existing methods and data also cannot identify the companies, jobs, and individuals affected by research investments in emerging technologies a priori, rendering traditional sample survey methods inadequate.

Reporting at the regional level can be challenging due to data limitations and privacy requirements. Requirements for timely reporting are also hindered by the current state of relevant data sources which exhibit significant time lags in producing the data. The project addresses these challenges by using a framework based on data linkage and inductive, iterative expansion of inclusion restrictions to take advantage of established network effects.

Core to the approach is the idea that research funding enables the work of innovators, which generates valuable ideas and skilled people who then contribute to the economy through networks created by the mobility of knowledge-workers. The proposed novel approach categorizes firms into "idea industries" based on: (1) the research-trained individuals employed by those firms and (2) the research projects to which they supply inputs.

This is achieved by linking together close to real-time bibliometric/textual data, university administrative records, and state workforce data, and using a “snowball” logic to identify industry and workforce effects of scientific investments that are difficult to measure otherwise.

The project builds upon existing, proven platforms with which the project team has significant experience. The novelty of the work is in its integrative, scalable, iterative nature. The project will engage the regional community and create measures, plans and support for expansion to other regions of the country.

The project will develop a prototype dashboard that can be improved and expanded upon iteratively over time. The work will also develop methods and templates for system building that can be integrated with other analysis efforts, allowing for triangulation across multiple data sources and approaches. The framework is designed to be expanded in three ways: (1) by including more technology areas and additional states; (2) by incorporating additional data sources like information on post-secondary certificate and degree recipients; and (3) by transitioning from prototype development to a software platform and data production system suitable for a wealth of use cases.

The project will collaborate closely with three major stakeholder groups, viz., university leaders, regional innovation ecosystem leaders, and state agency leaders to help inform the design of the system, develop metrics for success, and make improvements to the system. The outreach and engagement with the stakeholder community will help secure the broadest possible use of the prototype and build support and momentum for planned future expansions.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.