tag: Research
Blog Post
April 7, 2026
Understanding the Changing Terms of US–Sino Research Collaboration
Introducing a New Policy Tracker
Ithaka S+R is tracking federal policies in the United States that affect US–Sino academic collaboration as part of our Supporting International Values in the Research Enterprise project, funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. The tracker documents the developing rules, restrictions, and guidance that govern how scientific collaboration across borders can take place. Our aim for this tracker is to provide a resource from which university administrators, researchers, and advocates, can draw out broader patterns and develop coherent strategies…
Blog Post
March 31, 2026
Scaling Up Academic Open Source Program Offices
A New Issue Brief on the System-Level OSPO Initatives at the University of California and University of Texas
Across the past several years, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has supported the foundation and growth of academic Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) at 12 universities in the United States. OSPOs are units that support and coordinate open source software development and adoption. Ithaka S+R’s previous work has examined the successes and challenges of these Sloan-funded OSPOs in their early years. While these were each respectively based at a single academic institution, both the University of California (UC) and…
Issue Brief
March 31, 2026
Operating Open Source Program Offices at the System Level
A Case Study of the University of California and University of Texas System-Wide OSPO Projects
In this issue brief, we extend our earlier study of Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) to focus on two system-wide frameworks in the University of California and University of Texas systems. By operating at the system level, the UC and UT OSPOs aim to further embody principles of openness and more widely and effectively enable open source work by making resources and expertise more scalable as well as by establishing a framework to facilitate community-building and cross-institution collaboration.
Issue Brief
March 30, 2026
AI Adoption in Research Administration at Emerging Research Institutions
Research administration, an essential component of a university’s research enterprise, is growing more complex, costly, and cumbersome each year. As generative AI transitions into an everyday technology, university research offices are exploring its potential to reduce administrative burden and increase operational efficiency. With funding from the National Science Foundation’s GRANTED program, Ithaka S+R, Chapman University, and Montclair State University organized two workshops to help research administrators consider how to leverage AI to build research capacity at emerging research institutions.
Past Event
March 21, 2026
Blueprint to Breakthrough
Operationalizing AI Across the Research Enterprise
As interest in AI adoption expands in research administration, many institutions struggle to move from experimentation and ideas to operational solutions. Successfully deploying AI in this context requires more than a subscription or a prototype. It depends on understanding how AI functions, how it interacts with institutional data, and how that capability aligns with research administration workflows. This session at the NCURA 4th AI Symposium focuses on the practical realities of deploying AI in research administration, walking through key…
Blog Post
January 15, 2026
Human Values and AI Adoption in the Research Enterprise
Insights from the Second NSF GRANTED Workshop at Chapman University
Research administrators play an essential role in the research enterprise. Their work managing expenditures and monitoring compliance with rules related to the ethical conduct of research ensure that public money is spent and that research data is collected in ways that protect privacy, minimize risks to participants, and meet the complex legal and contractual obligations required by funders. At large research universities, these and other tasks associated with research administration are undertaken by trained specialists: at emerging research institutions (ERIs)…
Past Event
January 15, 2026
Findings from a Workshop on Sustaining Open Source Software in the Research Enterprise
On August 8, 2025, Ithaka S+R and the Apereo Foundation hosted a one-day in-person workshop, “Sustaining Open Source Software in the Research Enterprise” (SOSSRE), for 40 people, designed to bolster the ecosystem of open source software (OSS) developed for research purposes and to create holistic pathways for sustaining it within higher education. The workshop strengthened a sense of community between OSS for research and other OSS communities of practice; defined unique sustainability challenges of OSS for research; and identified potential…
Blog Post
December 9, 2025
Supporting International Values in the Research Enterprise
Announcing a New Project Funded by the Henry Luce Foundation
Many of the world’s best researchers work at universities in the United States. While they contribute to the US research enterprise, these researchers also often embody hybrid identities: their training, professional activities, and individual and collaborative work cross national, institutional, and disciplinary borders. However, the past several presidential administrations have enacted federal policies driven by concerns over national security and economic competitiveness that have restricted the flow of researchers and research outputs across national borders. Since 2018, heightened scrutiny, tightened…
Past Event
September 24, 2025
Looking Forward From Different Stakeholder Perspectives
At the FAIR Facilities and Instruments workshop, Ithaka S+R’s Dylan Ruediger will participate in a panel with Shawna Sadler (ORCID). The panel is scheduled for September 24 at 9:15-10:30am, and will take place at the NSF NCAR Mesa Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. See the full schedule.
Research Report
August 14, 2025
University Open Source Program Offices
Introduction Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) are dedicated units that coordinate and nurture open source software adoption across the organization. In the past two decades, as companies recognized that open source software “was not just a viable option but a critical path for technology innovation,” OSPOs became relatively common in large corporations, especially in the tech sector.[1] OSPOs are often initially focused on corporate compliance with the terms of open source software the company licensed, but…
Blog Post
May 1, 2025
Generative AI Adoption and Related Challenges in Higher Education
New Report Shares Findings of Cross-Institutional Qualitative Study
Today, we are announcing the publication of a new report detailing the findings of interviews offering insight on how instructors and researchers are using generative artificial intelligence in their work, as well as the challenges they currently face related to the technology. The study also reveals which support resources instructors and researchers are relying on and which resources they feel are still lacking.
Research Report
May 1, 2025
Making AI Generative for Higher Education
Adoption and Challenges Among Instructors and Researchers
This report presents the findings of the interviews that asked faculty to reflect on their perceptions of and experiences with generative AI in both teaching and research. Our study was driven by the following questions: To what degree are faculty adopting generative AI, and how is this changing their approaches and practices in teaching and research? What challenges are they facing in the aftermath of generative AI’s emergence? What support do they still need?…
Blog Post
April 28, 2025
How Institutions Are Supporting Community-Engaged Scholarship
Takeaways from Compact25
Campus Compact, the largest higher ed association dedicated to community engagement, hosted a vibrant Compact25 conference in Atlanta from March 31-April 2, 2025. While the majority of sessions at the conference were focused on civic education and the role of community engagement in instruction, community-engaged scholarship was also well-represented.
Blog Post
July 18, 2024
Defining Undergraduate Research Across Disciplines
Takeaways from ConnectUR
Identified as a high-impact practice by the American Association of Colleges and Universities in 2008, undergraduate research, scholarship, or creative activity is known to be especially transformative for underrepresented students, who are likely to face more barriers to participation. While most scholarship and funding of undergraduate research experiences is centered on the sciences, universities are making efforts to provide equivalent experiences for undergraduates in the arts, humanities, and social sciences—especially in the first two years of undergraduate study.
Past Event
October 15, 2024
AI Readiness
STM Conference 2024
At the STM Conference 2024 on “Advancing Trusted Research in the AI Era” in Frankfurt, Ithaka S+R’s Roger Schonfeld will facilitate a panel on AI readiness. The panel is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, October 15 at 2:45pm. Learn more about the conference and see the full schedule.
Blog Post
June 15, 2023
Made by Hand
The Case for Manual Data Collection in an Era of Automation
When designing a research study a key consideration is which research method—or methods—will yield the best insights. Here at Ithaka S+R we conduct applied research related to the education and cultural heritage sectors, and so we aim to collect evidence that can be used for immediate social benefit, such as towards improving policies and programs within institutions. Today we describe a method we regularly employ: manually collecting data from public facing websites. The information we can find through public websites…
Blog Post
May 16, 2016
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion within Academic Libraries
Announcing a New Research Project
Diversity, equity, and inclusiveness are vital issues for society in the United States and beyond. National policy discussions have catalyzed concerns that our higher education institutions are not providing the leadership on these issues that we would like to see. Ithaka S+R is today announcing our latest project examining diversity in cultural organizations, this time focusing on academic libraries. The Spring 2016 ARL meeting provided ample evidence of the importance…