Metodologie analizy nakładów i wydatków na badania naukowe - od wskaźników wkładu do wskaźników względnej pozycji

This paper discusses the status of indicators concerning research funding and expenditures and proposes some pathways for further developments. Firstly, the author discusses in depth the design of the R&D statistics based on the Frascati Manual and its limitations concerning analytical categories, data availability and quality. Further he argues that, to answer to specific policy questions concerning the allocation of funds, the development of a new generation of indicators is needed - so-called positioning indicators -focusing on the analysis of financial fluxes between research funders, intermediaries and performers, and presents some recent results of comparative European work in this direction. Finally, he draws some general methodological lessons on the nature of these indicators and on the procedure for their production, discussing key aspects like reproducibility, quality validation, simplicity, contingency and transparency.Artykuł zawiera analizę wskaźników dotyczących procesu finansowania badań naukowych i wydatków na te badania oraz propozycję usprawnienia tych wskaźników. Autor rozpoczyna od pogłębionego omówienia konstrukcji danych statystycznych dotyczących prac B+R opartych na Podręczniku Frascati oraz ich ograniczeń związanych z kategoriami analitycznymi, dostępnością danych oraz ich jakością. Następnie dowodzi, iż po to, aby odpowiedzieć na konkretne pytania z zakresu polityki naukowej, dotyczące przydziału funduszy, konieczne jest opracowanie nowej generacji wskaźników, tzw. wskaźników względnej pozycji (positioning indicators), skupiających się na analizie przepływów finansowych między podmiotami finansującymi badania, pośrednikami i ich wykonawcami. Przedstawia też niektóre nowsze wyniki badań porównawczych prowadzonych w Europie w tej dziedzinie. Na końcu formułuje ogólne wnioski metodologiczne dotyczące charakteru owych wskaźników i procedury ich tworzenia, wskazując na ich najważniejsze aspekty, takie jak powtarzalność, możliwość weryfikowania ich jakości, prostotę, warunkowy charakter i przejrzystość

Public research funding and research policy: a long-term analysis for the Swiss case

In this paper, an analysis is proposed of the evolution of public research in Switzerland from World War II to the year 2000. Thanks to the combination of different data sources, we produce a set of indicators for the overall volume of funding, the share of projects funds, and the share of the higher-education sector in the public research sector. Results are then linked to the development of the Swiss research and higher-education policy in the same period, leading to the identification of a major turning point at the end of the 1960s, when today's domination of higher education in the public research sector starte

Research in non-university higher education institutions. The case of the Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences

This paper presents the development of research in the Swiss non-university higher education sector and frames it in the debate on the organization of higher education systems in Western Europe and on the dynamics between university and non-university sector. It shows that, in the Swiss case, the applied research mandate has been used to differentiate these institutions from universities and that this endeavor has been to a large extent successful in technology, while it has been a source of major tensions in the other domains. I conclude that the development of research in the non-higher education leads to complex dynamics of convergence and of differentiation and that this process is strongly influenced by the specificities and differences between different subject domain

Public research funding systems in central and eastern Europe: between excellence and relevance: introduction to special section

Transformation of public research funding systems in central and eastern Europe (CEE) represent a natural experiment whereby different funding systems have developed from relatively common heritage of the socialist system. In this introduction that builds on the three papers of this thematic issue we argue that in medium and long-term the key challenge of CEE countries' research funding systems is to achieve balance between scientific excellence (static allocative efficiency) and socio-economic relevance (dynamic efficiency). The achievement of this trade-off is an institutional issue par excellence; it does not represent optimum but contextual fit, and is determined through interaction of macro funding rules and market structure of the research system. In order to evaluate this fit we should approach research funding as a multifaceted process composed of functional, path-dependent and political as well as learning dimension

Patterns of strategies in Swiss higher education institutions

This paper contributes to the debate on strategic capability of academic organizations by presenting three case studies of Swiss Higher Education Institutions. Strategies are conceived as instruments by which universities manage their organizational processes and deal with their environments in order to select a portfolio of activities and find an appropriate position in the higher education system. Our findings show that strategies are at the same time a matter of intentions and actions: first, they relate to current HEI's position within the national Higher education system—and to relevant normative models—as well as to the degree of institutional autonomy. Second, even within participatory governance structures, organizational strategies appear to be initiated by the academic administrators, then substantially shaped and subscribed by academics at different stages. In this perspective, the dynamic relation of formal and informal processes holds diverse functions from making academics accept a strategy, to controlling and coordinating decentralized organizational structure

Between historical heritage and policy learning: the reform of public research funding systems in Poland, 1989-2007

This paper provides an account of the reform of the public research funding system in Poland between 1989 and 2007, a period which includes the dramatic change after the breakdown of the Communist regime with the creation of a completely new system of research funding, yet still characterized by strong centralization; a lock-in phase until 2000 where only minimal changes happened; and a new reform period afterwards leading to a more decentralized and layered structure with a better separation between research policy and research funding. Our analysis displays strong elements on continuity and path dependency in this evolution, but at the same time the lasting influence of the western European model of research policy in the long run (especially after Poland joined the European Union); moreover, it shows how deeply reform in research funding has been embedded in the national context and in the whole process of reform of political institutions in the countr

Comparing the organization of public research funding in central and eastern European countries

In this article, we present a comparative analysis of the organization of public funding of research in three central and eastern European countries. We first compare the organization of funding agencies, the portfolio of funding instruments and, finally, the repartition of funding by beneficiaries. Further, we identify the main structural characteristics of the funding systems, by looking at features like sectoral divisions, level of delegation and the role of different institutional levels in the management of funding. Against a widespread conception of research policies in central and eastern European countries converging towards a western-style model, our study displays profound differences between the considered countries, related to history but also to contextual factors in the reform phas

Analysis of National Public Research Funding (PREF) - Handbook for Data Collection and indicators production

This document presents the basic definition and methodology for the PREF data collection. It covers basic definitions of funding streams and funding instruments, the thematic classifications, characterization of research funding organizations and umbrella public research organizations. It also provides guidelines concerning the data structure, data collection process, data flagging and collection and management of metadata.JRC.B.7-Knowledge for Finance, Innovation and Growt

Budgetary allocation and organizational characteristics of higher education institutions: a review of existing studies and a framework for future research

Budgeting—i.e. the decision on the level of expenditures and on the repartition of resources among organizational subunits—can be conceived as a critical organizational process, which is closely related to key choices concerning strategic priorities and to resources acquisition strategies. Overall, it is increasingly being recognized as one of the central places where steering and governance take place, and where higher education institutions are supposed to take initiative. Accordingly, this paper pursues two aims: first, it provides a review of existing studies about budgeting in higher education, according to the literature on changes in its organizational characteristics, and with a focus on approaches from Organizational Theory and Sociology. Second, it identifies some future directions of research, thus easing the integration of these two bodies of literature. This integration may help in providing researchers with a deeper understanding of the current functioning of budgeting processes, their variations across higher education institutions and countries, as well as their implications for organizational behavio