Making team science better: Applying improvement-oriented evaluation principles to evaluation of cooperative research centers

摘要

The rise of the research center has changed the landscape of U.S. research enter-prise. It has also created a number of evaluation challenges, particularly when considering strategically focused, multifaceted cooperative research centers (CRCs). The author argues that although recent CRC evaluation efforts have gone a long way toward meeting the needs of groups interested in accountabil-ity, they do little to meet the needs of inexperienced scientist managers who try to lead and manage these organizationally complex initiatives. An exception to this trend is described: the improvement-oriented evaluation strategy pio-neered by the National Science Foundation IUCRC program. © Wiley Period-icals, Inc.