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We know relatively little about the pathways through which funded university research contributes to scientific and technological innovation. Existing work focuses on the production of publications and patents by grant-funded principal investigators. Accelerating scientific and technological innovation through this pathway might suggest interventions aimed at increasing PIs’ publication and patenting rates.

But there may be other important pathways through which grant-funded research contributes to scientific and technological innovation. For example, the undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and research staff trained through university-based research grants may be important contributors to scientific and technological innovation once they leave university campuses. Accelerating scientific and technological innovation through this pathway might suggest interventions aimed at increasing the participation of students and early-career researchers on funded projects, and at better supporting the career pathways of these young researchers.

Currently we know very little about the contributions of grant-funded students and early career researchers to scientific and technological innovation after they leave university campuses. In partnership with the University of Michigan and Ohio State University, and with support from the National Science Foundation’s Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships Directorate, the Social Science Research Council is supporting the members of the College and University Fund for the Social Sciences in building a pilot data infrastructure designed to provide universities and science funding agencies with detailed information about the career trajectories and innovation impacts of grant-funded students and early-career researchers after they leave university campuses. The data infrastructure links universities’ person-level grant records to states’ employment and wage records, enabling stakeholders to track which firms and industries hire grant-trained researchers, and how those hires contribute to firm-level changes in job growth, job quality, and wages. We are piloting this data infrastructure in the state of Ohio, for the emerging technology research areas of artificial intelligence and electric vehicles.

The Industries of Ideas data infrastructure will, for the first time, provide universities and science funding agencies with detailed and reliable information about the contributions of grant-funded students and early career researchers to scientific and technological innovation, enabling the development of interventions that can potentially accelerate those contributions.

Accelerating Research-Led Innovation

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