Overview
The Institute for Social Research's program on Innovation, Networks, and Knowledge (INK) develops large-scale administrative datasets to use in concert with qualitative and survey data to examine how organizations and networks reproduce themselves and change through the creation and application of new knowledge. Our work focuses on three primary research areas, which emphasize the role of knowledge and innovation in scientific research, higher education, and health care. Jason Owen-Smith directs the Innovation Networks and Knowledge (INK) program within the Survey Research Center.
Specific Studies/Project
- The Institute for Research on Innovation and Science (IRIS) is the core data facility of a national consortium of universities. IRIS brings social and information scientists interested in topics pertaining to science policy together with university administrators to build a scientific framework and national data infrastructure that enables research on the process, products, and social and economic impact of research conducted on university campuses.
Funding: Ewing Marion Kauffman and Alfred P. Sloan foundations
- The Learning Analytics/Research Analytics (LARA) project combines student record data on teaching and learning with IRIS data on university research to examine how the education and research functions of universities jointly shape student progress and outcomes.
Funding: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- The Medical Care Networks project uses Medicare data and information derived from the Healthcare Cost Utilization Project (HCUP) to construct physician-physician networks within and across hospitals and other care facilities in order to examine: (1) how the social structure of surgical care shapes cost and quality within hospitals, and (2) how different types of care facilities influence the functioning of regional healthcare markets.
Funding: National Science Foundation
- The STEM Training project draws together a unique interdisciplinary team to examine two questions: (1) what are the pathways that graduate students take into non-academic careers? And (2) what are the role of their training environments, including faculty sponsors and networks in guiding those pathways?
Funding: National Science Foundation
Faculty collaborating on these projects include: Jason Owen-Smith (ISR-SRC, LSA), Maggie Levenstein (ISR-SRC, Ross), Timothy McKay (LSA, Education), John Hollingsworth (UM-Med)