Because Duke is a decentralized and entrepreneurial institution, many faculty and staff create partnerships or do research in countries abroad without any kind of central oversight. That is one challenge as it relates to the data. The other challenge is, that when we do have data about where sponsored research is taking place, it is difficult to determine the type of activity and the actual amount of funds being invested/spent.
One aspect of this lack of information is how Duke systems currently collect information about international projects, so the entirely reachable goal we pose to the Data+ team is to assist us in finding a way to update and improve our existing application, the Duke Sponsored Research Application Support, commonly referred to as SPS.
A team of students will produce a website behind a Shibbolith login that would detail Duke’s international sponsored and non-sponsored funding. The project team will review data pulled from the Duke Sponsored Research System that they will receive in an excel format. They will determine, based on a review of that data, where Duke researchers currently have research with a partner abroad or in another country. This determination will be based also on scraping the internet and related sources (Scholars@Duke; SCOPUS; https://grantome.com/) to see where researchers have existing international partnerships and investments.
Project Lead: Eve Duffy, Vice Provost’s Office of Global Affairs
