Emanuela Reale

Comparing the evolution of national research policies: what patterns of change?

This article presents a comparative analysis of the evolution of national research policies during the past three decades in six European countries (Austria, Italy, France, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland), with a special focus on the changes of public project funding schemes. It systematically uses indicators on the volume of funding attributed by each instrument and agency, which have been developed in a project of the European network of excellence PRIME. A common model is identified in these countries, where project funding is the second main channel of public funding of research, but also there are considerable variations among them in the share of instruments and agencies, and in beneficiaries. There are three interesting commonalities: a strong increase of project funding volumes; a differentiation of instruments; and a general shift towards instruments oriented to thematic priorities. They also show that individual countries appear to follow quite distinct paths in the organisation setting of funding agencies, and that national differences in funding portfolios persist through time. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Indicators for Comparative Analysis of Public Project Funding. Concepts, Implementation and Evaluation.

Despite its relevance for research funding, few comparable data are available in official R&D statistics on the amount and composition of project funding. This paper discusses in detail the methodology developed in the European Network of Excellence on Research and Innovation Policies PRIME for systematically producing indicators on public project funding which allow for comparative analysis between different countries and across periods of time. We introduce the design of the methodology, and discuss delimitation problems and how to develop suitable classifications of project funding instruments, as well as data availability and limitations. We present examples of our quantitative results for six European countries and of the questions they raise for comparative policy analysis. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Changing allocation models for public research funding: An empirical exploration based on project funding data

The objective of this paper is to perform an experiment of quantitative assessment on changes in allocation mechanisms and in their underlying delegation models, using the quantitative information and the descriptions of national funding systems produced in the PRIME project funding activity. Delegation has been explored through changes in instrument portfolios and in evaluation modes, as proofs of an evolution in research governance. Some common trends can be identified: the reinforcing of both priority setting and peer review processes. The general result of our analysis is that some change in delegation modes took place, but there is not a simple transition from one delegation regime to another. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Convergence and differentiation in institutional change among European public research systems: the decreasing role of public research institutes

In the 1990s two main political objectives have become evident in European public research systems (PRS): a more flexible use of available resources; and strong government action to enhance collaborative networks between the public sector and the users of research results. There are similarities in problem identification from one country to another but problem-solving strategies differ. This paper offers a comparative analysis of this phenomenon for four European countries — France, the UK, Spain and Italy — seeking to ‘operationalise’ convergence and differentiation in trends towards flexibility and collaboration among PRSs. The data used are from the OECD statistics and national country reports that formed part of the European PSR Project. A brief discussion is developed about the dangers arising from the use of flexibility. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Reforming Universities in Italy: Towards a New Paradigm?

The Law n. 240 approved on December the 30th 2010 aims at introducing deep modifications to the internal governance of Italian Universities. This chapter aims at understanding the underlying rationales, motivations and justifications of the actual reform and highlighting the ideas, principles, values and belief, thus cultural and cognitive frameworks, shaping the national academic system. This analysis relies on historical neo‐institutionalism and literature on models of governance. A longitudinal analysis of the reform text, from its presentation to its approval after several modifications is presented. It shows that the innovative character of the reform has been softened and affected by the traditional features of the Italian context. This chapter contributes to the discussion on academic reforms policy design: as stressed by the literature on the construction of public policies, the combination between institutions, interests and ideas and paradigms plays a major role in the ongoing reforms. The chapter also delineates the major importance of underlying policy designs in the reform process.

S&T indicators as a tool for formative evaluation of research programs:

The aim of this article is to review the potential of Science and Technology (S&T) Indicators for the evaluation of research programs. We suggest that indicators are a useful complement to other evaluation methodologies (surveys, case studies, panels) for summative evaluations, where the focus is on measuring program results and the degree of achievement of program objectives. However, we argue that indicators have a much broader potential to support formative evaluation, where the focus is on learning from past experience in order to design future research programs. Indicators, for example, are a valuable support for debates between social actors concerning strategic choices about research funding. We conclude by suggesting what needs to be done to realize this potential.

Designing indicators for policy decisions: challenges, tensions and good practices: introduction to a special issue

This special issue collects six papers (out of 80 submissions) from the Science and Indicators Conference organized by the European Network of Indicators Designers (ENID) in March 2010 in Paris, France. They cover quite different aspects of design of indicators for policy decisions, ranging from internationalization policies in research (Edler and Flanagan, 2011), to indicators to support the evaluation processes of funding agencies (Poti and Cerulli, 2011; Neufeld and Von Ins, 2011), to the analysis of publication outputs of higher education institutions (Reale, De Filippo, Gomez, Lepori, Poti, Primeri, Probst and Sanz Casado, 2011) and, finally, to two papers dealing with the highly contested issue of indicators to measure research output in social sciences and humanities (De Jong, Van Arensbergen, Daemen, Van der Meulen and Van den Besselaar, 2011; Probst, Lepori, De Filippo and Ingenhoff, 2011). Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

New uses of the institutional databases of universities: indicators of research activity

This paper explores the characteristics of the institutional databases of six universities in three European countries (Italy, Spain and Switzerland). Its aim is to test the extent to which databases can be considered valuable sources for building positioning indicators to describe different profiles of university research activities, rather than their competitive position along the single dimensions of scientific production and academic reputation. Project results support the evidence that institutional databases are social constructs, able to show a representation of the research performance of the universities, which is strongly affected by the interests of the different communities, influencing their development and evolution. Databases can also be valuable sources, when used in combination with international ones and with other information sources, to put together a broad picture of academic institutions and their scientific efforts. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

The Transformative Power of Evaluation on University Governance

This chapter investigates how external evaluation affects university governance. The two research questions are: What makes evaluation a powerful instrument affecting the governance of universities? Do different evaluation instruments have different strengths in affecting governance? We assume that evaluation has several areas of potential effect on universities related to transformation of: hierarchical relationships between actors; the academic profession; management and performance. The chapter surveys relevant literature, followed by an outline of the conceptual framework, a presentation of the data used and the tests developed, and data analysis. We attempt to identify homogenous clusters of higher education institutions (HEIs) in terms of the extent to which evaluation influences their governance, before our concluding discussion of the analytical results and the conclusions.

Actor Constellations and Policy Making

The chapter focuses on the HE sector itself, and the way in which it shapes HE policies in the light of two different perspectives: The first emphasizes the importance of organizational arrangements of the HE sectors for the shaping of HE policies. Then a comparative analysis of three countries—England, Italy and Norway is developed. The second perspective focuses on the HE sectors as areas in which organized actors pursue certain goals and values, and is used to provide a detailed analysis of policy processes. The empirical analysis is limited to the same three cases mentioned above. The chapter concludes by suggesting a possible way of conceptualizing the relationship between the organizational setup of the HE sector, its policy processes, and HE policy.