Visualization and Analysis of Social Networks of Research Funding

This paper describes a longitudinal analysis of the social networks formed by research collaborations at a Carnegie I research university. Over the last several years, many federal agencies, e.g., NSF, NIH, DOE, have recommended that funding proposals be submitted by collaborative interdisciplinary teams because of a growing acknowledgment of the importance of discoveries and outcomes from interdisciplinary science and technology. This is based on theory that more weak-tie relationships will lead to an increase in innovation. By modeling, visualizing and analyzing these social networks, we compare and contrast our funding relationships before and after the implementation of an organizational response to this national discourse on the need for interdisciplinary efforts. We implement network measures of density, betweenness centrality, and examine the rate of change in weak-tie and strong-tie social networks over time. We explore the strategic implications of structuring organizational responses to interdisciplinary collaboration.