Research Strategy Creation in STCs Findings from a Study of Center Directors

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Research Strategy Creationin STCsFindings from
a Study of Center Directors

• Harm-Jan Steenhuis
• Denis Gray
• CERSP NC State

The material is based upon work supported by the
STC Program of the National Science Foundation
under Agreement No. CHE-9876674.
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Contents

• Research
• STC Characteristics (some general numbers)
• Research strategy
• process of creating a long-term written plan
• elements of written plan
• changes to written plan
• research organization (thrusts)
• approaches to short term decision making
• unwritten strategy
• Satisfaction
• Conclusion

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Abstract

• This study focuses on the way in which research
  strategies are determined in STCs. The aim of
  this research is to provide STC management with
  insights on the research strategy formation
  process and current practices so as to help them
  with their decision making.

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Initial survey on challenging areas for STC
directors

• E-mail survey to
• all existing STC directors (at that time the
  1991 1999 cohort)
• in which we asked these directors
• to rate how challenging
• nine STC management related areas
• are to them on a scale from
• 1 low challenge, easy to manage
• to 5 high challenge, very hard to manage.

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Initial surveyManagement areas (1)

• Administrative Information Management
  Developing administrative policies and
  procedures facilities planning and maintenance
  sharing instrumentation and technical
  infrastructure coordination of and communication
  with partners maintaining liaison with NSF
  maintaining liaison with university
  administration planning site visits, External
  Advisory Board and other meetings developing and
  maintaining information systems for NSF and other
  purposes etc.
• Education K-12 Planning the K-12 educational
  approach identifying appropriate audiences
  targeting minority and other under-served
  audiences developing and implementing courses,
  workshops and activities developing and
  disseminating materials monitoring the quality
  etc.
• Education University Planning the educational
  approach recruiting high quality students and
  post docs from diverse backgrounds (notably
  minorities, under-represented groups, and U.S.
  citizenship) developing and implementing
  challenging new curricula, courses, and other
  educational experiences maintaining harmony
  among the diverse curriculum requirements placed
  on STC sponsored students monitoring the
  quality etc.

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Initial surveyManagement areas (2)

• Financial Management Developing a multi-year
  financial plan developing annual budgets
  securing funding from NSF securing funding from
  industry and other sources controlling expenses
  within the budget controlling and evaluating the
  financial performance preparing for audits
  developing accounting systems solving
  incompatibility issues of accounting systems
  among partners etc.
• Human Resource Management Planning the number
  of people and their tasks recruiting high
  quality staff and scientists from diverse
  backgrounds (notably minorities,
  under-represented groups and U.S. citizenship)
  laying-off staff providing performance feedback
  maintaining effective communication among
  different functions and groups etc.
• Knowledge and Technology Transfer Planning the
  approach to transfer identifying firms and other
  potential beneficiaries extending research
  and/or building prototypes to facilitate
  transfer protecting intellectual property
  developing and implementing strategies (e.g.,
  meetings) for transferring results and artifacts
  to potential beneficiaries in a timely fashion
  developing systems for tracking interaction with
  industry monitoring success of efforts etc.

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Initial surveyManagement areas (3)

• Leadership Developing a center structure
  delegating responsibilities developing an
  effective management team motivating staff and
  scientists chairing management meetings
  creating a challenging and motivating technical
  vision balancing and achieving integration among
  research-educational-technology transfer efforts
  planning for self sufficiency in research,
  technology transfer and education when STC
  sponsorship expire etc.
• Research Developing and updating a focused
  multi-year research plan that is both challenging
  and promotes synergy between areas and projects
  selecting new research projects phasing down
  research projects promoting effective
  communication and collaboration of projects
  within and between project areas and across
  different sites monitoring progress and
  completion of projects etc.
• Strategic Marketing Management Developing a
  business plan/strategic plan for the center
  identifying and recruiting External Advisory
  Board members identifying and recruiting
  industry and other stakeholders maintain
  industry members over an extended time period
  developing and maintaining web site developing
  public relations vehicles developing and forging
  university and other partnerships developing and
  distributing a newsletter etc.

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Results initial survey on challenging areas
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Why do we examine research strategy creation?

• Strategic approach to research may be the
  defining element of STC research.
• 2nd highest priority for STC directors.
• Single best predictor of firm retention (Gray,
  Lindblad and Rudolph, 2001).
• Very little is known on this topic.

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Research goals/objectives

• Determine research strategy creation processes
  that are followed in STCs.
• Determine how the different processes can be
  categorized.
• Determine what kind of process is
  followed/appropriate in what type of situation.
• Give examples of current best practice to STC
  directors.

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Hypothesized modelStrategy creation and
strategic plan
Typical ERC approach
Typical STC approach
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Methodology
Survey among existing STC directors
Literature study gain insight framework
5 in-depth case studies
Telephone interviews with 17 STC directors
(1989 6, 1991 6, 1999 5)
In-depth case studies on specific issues for
current practices
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STC characteristics (1)Four cohorts 28 6
centers
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STC characteristics (2)Personnel
The average center has
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STC characteristics (3)Research sites
The number of research sites per STC differs
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STC characteristics (4)Research sites
The number of research sites per STC differs
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STC characteristics (5)Number of research sites
cohort effect
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STC characteristics (6)Motives for operating in
a center mode

• Long-term the center mode enables research for
  which expected results are anticipated only in
  the long-run, i.e. the end of the center life
  time or even longer.
• Facilities scale the center mode enables
  research that requires a certain minimum scale
  due to facility or specialized equipment needs,
  i.e. it requires expensive facilities and/or
  equipment that individual researchers wouldnt be
  able to afford.
• People scale the center mode enables research
  that requires a certain minimum scale of efforts,
  i.e. it requires a large number of people
• Multi-disciplinarity the center mode enables
  research that requires a group of people who
  share their different backgrounds, i.e.
  meaningful results can only be obtained if a
  diverse range of disciplines is involved.

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STC characteristics (7)Average importance of
center dimensions
Note importance was ranked from 1-10 with 10
extremely important
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STC characteristics (8)Primary motives for STCs
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STC characteristics (9)Primary motives, cohorts
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STC characteristics (10)Average relative
importance of each dimension per cohort
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STC characteristics (11)Motives for research

• Curiosity driven working towards a better
  understanding of some area or phenomena for
  science sake.
• Utilization/enabling application working towards
  utilization or enabling of application of
  developed ideas.

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STC characteristics (12)STCs have different
research drivers
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STC characteristics (13)Research drivers, cohorts
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STC characteristics (14)Some conclusions

• Centers differ on the number of research sites
• Centers have different motives for operating in a
  center mode
• Centers have different research motives

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Written research strategy (1)Long-term written
research strategy creation

• The typical center
• Develops the written long-term research strategy
  in 6 months
• Reviews the long-term research strategy every 12
  months.

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Written strategy creation (2) The general model
for developing the plan
Some centers do this in a structured, formalized
way, other do it unstructured, not formalized.
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Written strategy creation (3)Involvement in
information gathering
Note STCs with no MT didnt mention the MT for
each of the activities
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Written strategy creation (4)Involvement in
strategy creation
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Written strategy creation (5)Involvement in
feedback
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Written strategy creation (6)Directors
management team involvement
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Written strategy creation (7)PI involvement
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Written strategy creation (8)Outside involvement
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Written strategy creation (9)Committee
involvement
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Written strategy creation (10)Outside EAB
involvement
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Written strategy creation (11)THE decision Maker
on the written plan
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Written strategy creation (12)THE decision
Maker, cohort
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Written strategy creation (13)Some conclusions
about the process

• Similar steps for strategy creation are followed
  by STCs although some do it more
  structured/formal.
• Directors and management team are especially
  involved in strategy creation
• PIs are especially involved in information
  gathering
• Outside sources are especially involved in
  feedback
• Directors or management team is ultimate decision
  maker

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Written research strategy (1)The research
strategic plan
Items discussed in the plan ( of centers)
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Written research strategy (2)Time frame within
the plan
Time frame for items (in years)
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Written research strategy (3)Changes to the
research strategic plan
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Written research strategy (4)Significant changes
that occurred
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Written research strategy (5)Significant changes
occurrence

• 89 of significant changes occur before the 4th
  year of STC existence.
• Significant changes typically take 12 months.

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Written research strategy (6)Reasons for
significant changes
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Written research strategy (7)Some conclusions
about the plan

• The STCs address similar issues in their
  strategic plan with similar time frames
• The research strategic plan often undergoes
  significant changes before the 4th year of STC
  funding
• Changes often relate to thrust areas
• The reasons for the changes differ

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Research organization (1)Number of thrusts
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Research organization (2)number of thrusts,
cohorts
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Research organization (3)Thrust relationships
sequential oriented

• Thrusts are organized along real sequential
  events and primarily develops a model covering an
  entire processExample Center for Advanced
  Cement Based Materials has four thrust areas that
  follow the process of cement making
• First, Reology in Processing, looks at process of
  making cement
• Second, Microstructure Characteristics, looks at
  the chemical reactions and microstructure changes
• Third, Transport Properties, looks at hardening
  of cement
• Fourth, Toughening Mechanisms, looks at
  toughening (concrete is brittle and needs to be
  toughened)

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Research organization (4)Thrust relationships
reciprocal

• Thrusts are focussed on a phenomenon from
  multiple, reciprocal views. Understanding one
  view is severely limited without the insights
  from other thrusts.Example Center for
  Biological Timing has three thrusts that focus on
  biological rhythms
• One, Clock Genome, studies (low) frequencies in
  cells.
• One, Pacemaker Mechanisms, studies (low)
  frequencies in tissue.
• One, Frequency Modulation, studies (high)
  frequencies in genes.
• For example understanding cell frequencies is
  required to understand tissue frequencies and
  vice versa

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Research organization (5)Thrust relationships
common ground

• Thrusts are focussed on a phenomenon from
  multiple, views with a common ground. Each thrust
  can be viewed independently, yet, combined they
  all contribute to a common core of
  knowledge.Example Center for Discrete
  Mathematics Theoretical Computer Science
  studies mathematics and computer science in
  different settings
• One, Networks, studies infrastructures, internet,
  ...
• One, Discrete Probabilities, studies probability
  and statistical mechanics dealing with topics of
  an essentially discrete nature
• One, Mathematical Support for Molecular Biology,
  studies the formulation of fundamental concepts
  in molecular biology studies

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Research organization (6)Thrust relationships
application oriented

• Thrusts are focussed on practical
  applications.Example Center for Adaptive
  Optics
• One thrust, Extreme Adaptive Optics, develops the
  core theories on how adaptive optical mirrors can
  compensate for distortions.
• One thrust, Extremely Large Telescopes, studies
  how these adaptive optical mirrors can be applied
  in extremely large telescopes.
• One thrust, Vision Science, studies how these
  adaptive optical mirrors can be applied for eye
  measurements.

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Research organization (7)thrust relationships
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Research organization (8)thrust relationships,
cohorts
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Research organization (9)Some conclusions about
research organization

• Centers vary on how many thrust areas they have
• Centers vary on how thrust areas are related to
  each other

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Short-term strategy (1)strategy approaches 3 or
more year

• 3 or more year strategic/tactical decisions
• These centers develop a multi-year plan and
  implement it. Each year they check whether the
  objectives are still valid and whether adequate
  progress has been made. They do not make explicit
  yearly research decisions

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Short-term strategy (2)strategy approaches
yearly tactical

• Yearly tactical decisions
• These centers have a multi-year (strategic) plan
  but each year they make decisions on which
  research should be carried out over the next year
  or two. The research strategic plan is used as a
  guide to make these decisions.

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Short-term strategy (3)strategy approaches
yearly strategic

• Yearly strategic/tactical decisions
• These centers determine for each year what their
  research strategy will be and also determine the
  actual research that will be carried out. They
  have a long-term center plan but not a long-term
  research strategic plan.

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Short-term strategy (4)short term strategy
approaches
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Short-term strategy (5)short term strategy
approaches, cohorts
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Short-term strategy (6)Short term research 3 or
more year plan

• Link with strategy
• 80 of centers with roadmap have 3 or more year
  plan
• 62.5 of centers with 3 or more year plan have
  roadmap

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Short-term strategy (7)Short-term decisions and
unwritten strategies

• Besides the written strategy (plan), there are
  also unwritten aspects.
• (Operational) details that are not included in
  the strategic plan.
• Changes that are not yet included in an (updated
  version of the) plan, e.g. due to scientific
  results a thrust objective changed.
• Items that are not considered to be at the
  forefront, e.g. tool development and personnel
  issues, and are therefore not part of the written
  strategy

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Short-term strategy (8)Short-term decision and
unwritten strategy
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Short-term strategy (9)Short-term decision and
unwritten strategy
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Short-term strategy (10)Short-term yearly
tactical decisions
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Short-term strategy (11)Example of 2 stage RFP
process

• Pre-RFP identification of areas by management
  team
• Pre-proposals (1 page) submitted in 1 month,
  reviewed by technical committee in 2 weeks
• identification and notification of potential
  collaborations
• identification of areas without proposals,
  potentially locate outside of center
• RFP sent out
• Proposals submitted in 1 month
• Evaluated, takes 1 month, grouped in
• definitely fund, definitely not fund, in between
• most time spent on in between

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Short-term strategy (12)Example of a 2-day, off
campus retreat process

• 1st day
• present past research, decisions on whether to
  continue and new identification of new areas of
  interest
• towards end, identification of 4-5 research
  topics for next year. Break-up in 4-5 groups
  before dinner so people can discuss over dinner.
• 2nd day
• discussions take place in the 4-5 groups about
  what will be done in each group. A project
  coordinator is selected in each group.
• End of day, 4-5 groups back together, present
  their plan.
• After retreat, coordinator writes plan down (1
  page includes mission and deliverables) and
  oversees implementation

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Short-term strategy (13)Conclusion short-term
strategy

• Centers follow one of three approaches for
  short-term research strategy
• Unwritten strategies frequently play an important
  role

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Satisfaction (1)with strategy
Note satisfaction was ranked from 1-10 with 10
extremely satisfied
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Satisfaction (2)NSF role
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Satisfaction (3)STC director with strategy
creation
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More prepared directors?
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Conclusions (1)a lot of diversity

• STCs have different center motives
• STCs have different research motives
• STCs differ in their approach towards developing
  the written long-term research strategy
• STCs place a different emphasis on written
  versus unwritten strategies
• STCs differ in their approach towards short term
  (next year or two) approach towards research
  strategy
• STCs differ in their research organization
  (number of thrust areas and their relationships)

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Conclusions (2)Commonalities

• STCs have a long-term research strategic plan
• STCs typically develop this in 6 months
• STCs typically review it every 12 months
• STCs address similar topics in the plan
• STCs typically experience a significant change
  of the plan within the first 4 years of their
  existence. These changes relate to becoming more
  detailed, slight changes in the structure of the
  strategy creation approach (more formalized), and
  change of thrust areas
• STC directors are satisfied with their approach
• STC directors receive a relatively low level of
  NSF guidance on research strategies but are
  satisfied with this
• STC directors feel they become more adept at
  strategy creation

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Conclusions (3)cohort effects

• 1999 centers find multi-disciplinary more
  important
• 1999 centers are more utilization and enabling
  application driven
• 1999 centers have more research sites and fewer
  thrust areas
• 1999 centers place a higher emphasis on the
  written plan
• 1999 centers have more often formal mechanisms to
  make short-term research decisions
• 1999 directors are less satisfied with the
  performance
• 1999 centers seem to have better prepared
  directors

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Where do we go from here?

• Continue with best practices
• research strategy creation
• more operational research to develop practically
  applicable descriptions of practices
• which practices?
• Knowledge transfer?
• Comparison across programs
• ERC, IUCRC, ...

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Strategy formation andstrategic plan
Typical STC approach
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Strategy formation andstrategic plan
ERC approaches
STC approaches
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Future issues

• What have we not (yet) told you that you would
  like to know?

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• You can find this information also on
• www//nsfstc.unc.edu (key items/resources for
  STC directors)

WE THANK ALL THE PARTICIPATING DIRECTORS !!!
Acknowledgement The material is based upon work
supported by the STC Program of the National
Science Foundation under Agreement No.
CHE-9876674.