Current Emerginig Technology Research Projects

The following are current and recent grants obtained by Dr. Jennifer Kuzma, with descriptions provided by the corresponding research assistants where applicable.

Women in S&T Policy

Kuzma, J. co-PI
NSF 2012-2015 $420,000

Co-PIs, Kaye Husbands-Fealing (NAS/NRC & U of MN), Deborah Fitzpatrick (U of MN), Susan Cozzens (GA Tech), Laurel Doerr (Boston U)

The work of science and technology (S&T) policymaking agencies in the United States is important to building knowledge and economic growth. These agencies make decisions about how to structure policies and programs for funding science and technology development, how to promote technology transfer and innovation, and how to use scientific and technical methods in federal regulation and oversight. This project investigates the organization and leadership of federal science and technology policy agencies, and in particular it examines the role of women in science and technology policy.

Research across the social sciences has investigated the advantages of including diverse perspectives in decision-making, including the perspectives of men and women leaders. While there is much research on women in science and women in management or government, there is little previous research on the role of women leaders in science and technology policy. This project explores new ground by providing both qualitative and quantitative measures of women’s participation and influence on science and technology policy at the federal level. Click here for more information.

Public/Expert Boundary Work in Environmental Risk Management: The Emerald Ash

Kuzma, J. PI. Quick K. co-PI
Consortium 2011-2012 $27,500

The emerald ash borer is a small green beetle native to Asia, which has larvae that feed on the inner bark of North American ash trees until they kill the tree two to four years later. It was detected in spring 2009 in St. Paul, Minnesota and has now infested many neighborhoods
in Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs.

Kuzma and Co-Principal Investigator Kathy Quick have held a series of focus group meetings with academic, government, and industry representatives; community organizations; and interested parties about how to manage the emerald ash borer. The groups have explored what they have heard and what is known about the emerald ash borer; how individuals feel about particular treatment options; and what individuals believe about the roles of different entities, such as the media, experts or government agencies should be in finding solutions and distributing information. The team is now working on building a framework for bridging the boundaries of different stakeholder groups with expertise in further investigation. In the coming months larger stakeholder groups will take place and the research findings will be reported over the next year.

What Constitutes Risk Assessment for Emerging Technologies?

Kuzma, J. PI.
GIA 2011-2013 $35,357

A Science of Science Policy Approach.

This study will look at collaboration and gaps to address problems of innovation in the field of risk assessment for emerging technologies using bibliometric and text mining techniques. The idea is that understanding gaps in collaborative patterns among institutions and disciplines can lead to the better design of risk analysis research for improved decision making about emerging technological products.

The role of industry is extremely important for good governance. Kuzma and Kuzhabekova have also studied corporate social responsibility in the context of nanotechnology oversight. Two key scholarly papers have already arisen from this work: one situating how firms approach emerging technologies oversight in the context of management theory, and the other on firm participation in voluntary governance approaches and its dependency on company size and age. Portions of this work were supported with a grant associated with Kuzma’s Resident Fellowship with the Institute on the Environment.

Resident Fellow: Collaborative Systems Modeling

Kuzma, J. Institute on the Environment
IonE 2009–2012 $60,000

This grant is intended to combine policy, social science, system dynamics, and biochemistry expertise with a desire to increase capacity for interdisciplinary environmental problem solving at the University of Minnesota. During this fellowship period, the following questions will be addressed using principles and methods in risk analysis, policy sciences, and systems modeling:

1) What are the potential impacts of key nanoparticles in the environment? What risks and benefits exist, and how can benefits be maximized and risks minimized? What are the social and policy variables that affect these risks and benefits, and how might the public perceive them? What data gaps exist for environmental pathways and human and ecosystems exposure?

2) What is the potential of algae for biofuel production given technological interventions such as genetic engineering, synthetic biology, and nanotechnology? What might public attitudes and societal impacts be?

3) How can collaborative systems modeling be used to address the above technology policy questions? How can it be leveraged for successful model development?

In year one, RA Roxanne Johnson helped to develop the first draft of a system dynamics model of Nano Zero Valent Iron (nZVI) deployment for groundwater pollution remediation. This nano-scale version of well known ZVI technology is injected directly into groundwater, and risks specific to the nano-scale version are yet to be determined. The model illuminates a possible structure of the overall socio-political, economic system in which the technology is being developed and deployed, capturing mental models of the system as represented by experts in a variety of literature reviewed. The modeling problem is how we can maximize benefits, minimize risks, and respect social values in deployment of nZVI technology.

In her plan B paper, Roxanne also did a rhetorical analysis of some source documents to probe difficulties in developing variables in the model. Her study found more interdisciplinary work and collaborative systems modeling in particular could potentially alleviate some of these difficulties, as they result from differences in the way that experts think and write about the system.

Risk Analysis for Introduced Species and Genotypes, Interdisciplinary Graduate Education and Research Training Grant (IGERT)

Kuzma, J. Co-PI
NSF 2007–2012 $3,086,497

Ray Newman, Susan Galatowitsch, Anne Kapuscinski (co-PI until 2009), Jennifer Kuzma (co-PI since May 2009, co-investigator from 2007–2009)), David Andow, and Ruth Shaw.