This paper explores research capabilities in nanoscale science and technology. We introduce a method for sampling a population of (potentially) creative scientists based on two measures: network brokerage and multivocality. Subsequent data exploration shows how these scientists are distributed...

While some believe that publication and citation scores are key predictors of breakthroughs in science, others claim that people who work at the intersection of scientific communities are more likely to be familiar with selecting and synthesizing alternatives into novel ideas. This paper...

This paper explores institutional and organizational influences on creativity in scientific research. Using a method for identifying creative scientific research accomplishments in two fields of science (nanotechnology and human genetics) in Europe and the US, the paper summarizes results...

Research collaboration is a key mechanism for linking distributed knowledge and competencies into novel ideas and research venues. The need for effective inter-institutional knowledge flows is of particular importance in emerging domains of research, and also a challenge for public research...

This paper discusses the institutional persistence of systems of national laboratories (SNLs) that unlike other public and private research organizations appear to have experienced only minor institutional shifts in recent years. Although national laboratories started as time-limited...

A key challenge for research management and science policy is support of scientific exploration of new research frontiers. This paper examines funding schemes that aim to encourage scientists to conduct unconventional and high-risk research. Schemes are analyzed across institutional dimensions,...

Studies of institutional transformation in science have largely overlooked Big Science installations, despite far-reaching changes to the roles and functions of such large labs in the past decades. Here, we present and analyze two Big Science labs that have undergone profound transformations...

The German research system is functionally differentiated into various institutional pillars, most importantly the university system and the extra-university sector including institutes of the Helmholtz Association, the Max Planck Society, the Leibniz Association and the Fraunhofer Society....