Science of Organizations
The Science of Organizations program funds basic research to improve the design, development, and effectiveness of various types of organizations through scientific methods and generalizable insights.
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation
Due Dates: Rolling (proposals accepted anytime) | October 15, 2076 (application deadline)
Funding Amounts: $3,270,000 estimated total program funding; 20 expected awards
Summary: Supports basic research advancing fundamental understanding of how organizations form, develop, operate, and achieve effectiveness.
Key Information: Projects must advance generalizable knowledge, rather than simply implement and evaluate organizational training or change programs.
Description
The National Science Foundation’s Science of Organizations (SoO) program funds basic research that builds a scientific evidence base for improving the design, development, management, and effectiveness of organizations. Its scope encompasses private and public, established and entrepreneurial, formal and informal, and profit and nonprofit organizations. Research should yield generalizable insights useful to business practitioners, policymakers, and researchers.
SoO welcomes rigorous scientific approaches to organizations as systems of coordination, management, and governance. Supported work develops and refines theories, empirically tests theories and frameworks, or develops new measures and methods. Topics include organizational design and management, individuals’ behavior and well-being within organizations, and relationships among people, organizations, and systems. The program values potential societal benefits while emphasizing contributions to fundamental knowledge about organizational effectiveness.
