Influences of academic institutional factors on R&D funding for graduate students

Alexandra Graddy-Reed, Lauren Lanahan and Nicole M V Ross

Science and Public Policy, 2017, vol. 44, issue 6, 834-854

Abstract: We examine the effect of academic institutional characteristics on research funding grant success for graduate students. This article draws upon the US National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). We match a set of graduate students to their graduate programs to examine whether higher education institutional factors mediate funding assignment to award or honorable mention. We find evidence that a series of leadership, peer, programmatic, and university characteristics are associated with grant funding outcomes. Notably, faculty research and peer quality are associated with award success, while the signal of being at a public institution decreases the likelihood of award receipt. Moreover, while we find that larger programs are more likely to have graduate students that receive awards, the larger, lower-ranked programs exhibit inefficiencies in scaling the activity. This implies that these programs may face coordination costs that are detrimental to the rate of graduate student success.

Keywords: R&D funding; higher education; graduate students; science and engineering; federal funding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:scippl:v:44:y:2017:i:6:p:834-854.

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