The Decision, Risk and
Management Sciences (DRMS)
Elena Katok
Ashbel Smith Professor
University of Texas at Dallas
ESA North American Conference, Dallas TX
October 24, 2015
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The Mission
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“The Decision, Risk and Management Sciences
program supports scientific research directed at
increasing the understanding and effectiveness
of decision making by individuals, groups,
organizations, and society. Disciplinary and
interdisciplinary research, doctoral dissertation
research improvement grants, and workshops
are funded in the areas of judgment and
decision making; decision analysis and decision
aids; risk analysis, perception, and
communication; societal and public policy
decision making; management science and
organizational design.”
nsf.gov
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Proposal Evaluation

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Peer reviews, followed by a panel.
DRMS panels tend to be extremely
diverse.

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Variety of disciplines: psychology, economics,
business…
Variety of methods: survey, field studies, field
experiments, lab experiments…
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The challenge



… has to do with the diversity of the panel.
Research question: appeal to this
interdiscipliery panel
Writing: with a view to this broader set of
readers.
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Successful Proposals

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Clear and interesting hypotheses.
Theoretical guidance helps.
Experimental design is detailed and well
thought out.
Includes a report of results from a pilot
study.
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