Scientific publications at U.S. federal research laboratories

Abstract

In this paper, we focus on scientific publications as an innovative output from the research efforts at U.S. federal laboratories. The data used relate to Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs). The relationship between R&D expenditures at these federal laboratories and their peer-reviewed scientific publications allows us to make inferences about the return to public-sector R&D. We examine two complementary statistical models. From the first model, we find that a 10 percent increase in constant dollar public-sector R&D is associated with between a 15.5 and 21.5 percent increase in scientific publications. From the second model, we find that the annual rate of return generated by an additional $1 million of R&D-based knowledge stock varies across the FFRDCs, averaging about 93 additional scientific publications, with the statistically significant values ranging from about 1 to as many as about 400 additional scientific publications.

Incentivizing knowledge institutions for entrepreneurship and society

“…First, public servants focused on R&D activities urge entrepreneurship thanks to the knowledge Incentivizing knowledge institutions they generate regularly. This result is aligned with the literature about innovation and entrepreneurship (Link and Scott, 2021;Link and Wright, 2015). However, in our case, knowledge comes through two main mechanisms, which are strongly associated with institutions.…”

“…On the one hand, knowledge is disseminated to the rest of the academic community that builds prototypes or other innovative products upon that evidence. On the other hand, academic publications derived from research activities become the return to public-sector R&D (Link and Scott, 2021). also provide evidence about the role of innovation research centers in increasing a research team that produces academic articles.…”

“…Nonetheless, when observing public organizations, evidence of this idea remains scarce. Link and Scott (2021) provide evidence about the importance of having researchers in federal research laboratories, who create academic publications. These documents have two main functions.…”

Does large-scale research infrastructure affect regional knowledge innovation, and how? A case study of the National Supercomputing Center in China

“…Firstly, concerning the impact of investments in S&T on innovation, a substantial body of research has demonstrated the stimulating impact of government subsidies on the R&D activities of enterprises. Studies have also focused on the innovation effects of public sector S&T investments, encompassing different dimensions like research institutes and cities, supporting that fiscal investment in S&T has led to an increase in both the quantity of scientific publications and patents (Link and Scott, 2021;Chen et al, 2023b). Secondly, since the proposition of endogenous growth theory, the accumulation of human capital has been considered the fountainhead of economic growth, significantly determining a nation's innovative capacity.…”