In recognition of the importance of research to the advancement of librarianship and information science, OCLC and ALISE promote independent research that helps integrate new technologies that offer innovative approaches and contributes to a better understanding of the information environment and user expectations and behaviors.
Research related (but not limited) to the following areas is encouraged:
Impact of digital technology on libraries, museums, and archives
Social media, learning, and information-seeking behavior
New developments in knowledge organization (metadata, social tagging, linked data, etc.)
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Exploratory/Developmental Grant (R21) funding opportunity supports the development of new research activities in categorical program areas. The R21 activity code is intended to encourage exploratory and developmental research projects by providing support for the early and conceptual stages of these projects. These studies may involve considerable risk but may lead to a breakthrough in a particular area, or to the development of novel techniques, agents, methodologies, models, or applications that could have a major impact on a field of biomedical, behavioral, or clinical research.