To any academic reading this blog who senses that their research interests are in any way related to mine:
- Leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you and know what you’re doing, and how your research is going.
- Check out the NSF funding for Engineering Design, and the projects that have been supported in the past.
I’ve mentioned the NSF before, and have taken my first steps toward learning more about this branch of the government, which supports a wide range of research in the natural and social sciences. My sense is that it is quite a competitive, but supportive, agency that is regularly the first stop for grant applications in cognitive science and related fields. This makes sense, as it is officially a non-political and non-commercial funding agency, unlikely to impose ideologically-motivated restrictions on what and how to research. Of course, the funding is usually offered toward research in particular areas of interest (and the question is, whose interest, exactly?). I may be nai¨ve in this, and no doubt once I start doing my own research and apply for grants, I will re-evaluate my benevolent view of the NSF, but at the moment I’m generally pleased that it exists and is “fighting the good fight”. I will likely investigate the NSF funding website more in-depth at some point in the future and give a more thorough appraisal.
Funding organizations are curious beasts, particularly government bodies that ask for little or nothing in return for what can be significant amounts of money. Many of the projects listed under Engineering Design, for example, have each received hundreds of thousands of dollars over the duration of the investigations (which can last several years and employ many individuals). If a browse through the recent research abstracts supported by this particular funding program fails to convince you that government funding of scientific research is key to advancement, you’re not paying attention. Sure, similar work is being done around the world in private research labs in Fortune 500 tech companies, but those investigators are isolated from each other and may not ultimately contribute to a shared understanding of the principles they investigate. This is the compromise of the free competitive market - it maintains strong (financial) incentives to advance the state of the art, but very little incentive to cooperate and collaborate in that endeavor.
This competitive state presents a number of risks for the interdisciplinary nature of cognitive science and related fields (such as Engineering Design). Collaboration is at their core, and a competitive environment can strangle innovation. Academia, ironically, is therefore perfectly suited for theoretical research into these “applied” disciplines. The problem, of course, is that academic research centers generally cannot independently fund themselves - and although top tier research universities have endowments swelling at a rate that may eventually overcome this barrier, the majority of labs will continue to be under-supported in their work. Currently, no-strings government support is key, and I’m excited to see the breadth of funding offered through the NSF in particular. Anyone know of other major sources of academic funding that are less well known? Where have you applied for funding, and what was your experience? Would you be hesitant to accept funding from a private organization?