[In Depth] DATA CHECK: Tracking first jobs to measure the impact of research funding
Newly minted Ph.D.s from two flagship public universities in the Midwest are more likely to end up working in California than in their home states, according to a recent study in Science. The ability to track geographic mobility is just one of the many applications of a new database focused on how public spending on research fosters innovation. For government officials, such results bring them one step closer to their goal of setting national research policy based on evidence rather than anecdote. For researchers in the fledgling field of the science of science policy, the results point to the potential value of an unprecedented blending of university administrative records with employment and earnings data collected for the U.S. Census Bureau that is now available at the Institute for Research on Innovation and Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Author: Jeffrey Mervis