From GRC GrantWeek: Where’s NEA Going? There’s a Map for That

In a move that signals growing rigor and a closer alignment with scientific research agencies, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has released a five-year research agenda, system map, and measurement model. GRC strongly encourages members to review the report on these developments, “How Art Works,” which was officially released at American University on September 20, 2012.

GRC was there as NEA chairman Rocco Landesman described the agency’s efforts to both map the system and tell the story of how art works. The map is the result of a series of community engagement activities designed “to develop a common view of the relationship between art and individual and community outcomes.” Landesman admits that it is “both too complex and too simple but,” nonetheless, “useful.” The map provides what Keats called “negative capability,” or the ability to imagine a system without having to resolve apparently contradictory aspects. Questions such as “what is art?” are intentionally left unanswered, as NEA encourages arts researchers to map everything from Kanye West to a visit to the Met.

Instead, the intention is to explore the interplay among arts participation and creation; the artist, the artwork, and audience; how arts participation influences the lives of individuals and their communities; and how individuals and their communities influence artists and their work.

Sunil Iyengar, director of the NEA Office of Research and Analysis, believes the most significant change over the next five years will be the shift from inductive to deductive arts research, with the expectation that awardees will make explicit connections between NEA-funded research and the public good.

Download the full report and listen to the recording of the September 20 event online.

NSF Reports on Research Funding

From Grants Resource Center GrantWeek:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released reports on the flow of federal research funding into colleges and universities in 2009 and the status of graduate students and postdoctoral scientists in research fields in 2008.

The Academic Research and Development (R&D) Expenditure Survey findings demonstrate an increase in the overall number of U.S. academic institutions that grant degrees in science and engineering fields and spent at least $150,000 in separately budgeted science and engineering R&D funding, from 690 in FY 08 to 711 in FY 09.

The amount of federal and non-federal funds supporting R&D flowing into and out of these institutions has steadily increased since FY 04. With the exception of mathematical sciences, funding devoted specifically to major science and engineering fields has continued to rise since FY 08. The report provides a detailed breakdown of funding by agency and expenditures by university, field of study, student demographic, geographic division, and state.