Evaluation of Publicly Funded Research : European Science Foundation

About

Background

The ESF Member Organisation Forum on Evaluation of Funding Schemes and Research Programmes was successful in exchanging practices and facilitating the networking of sciences officers engaged in evaluation, and the feedback on this MO Forum was very positive. During the course of its work, new questions arose which were deemed to be worthwhile to explore in this new ESF Member Organisation Forum on Evaluation of Publicly Funded Research.

There is a need for the continuous exchange of information on evaluation practices and practical approaches. The ESF Member Organisation Forum on Evaluation of Publicly Funded Research is the sole dedicated platform for European research organisations that provides a continuous forum to exchange information and work together on common projects. The EUROHORCs and ESF Road Map acknowledges the work of the prior Forum. The ESF Member Organisation Forum on Evaluation of Publicly Funded Research can help to implement activities within Action 6 of the Road Map (Develop common approaches to ex post evaluation of funding schemes and research programmes).

Aims

To improve evaluation studies on funding schemes
To learn about best practices of impact assessment of research and research funding
To identify the challenges in conducting transnational comparative evaluation

Objectives

To facilitate networking
To exchange and share information on evaluation studies of funding schemes and practices
To produce an inventory of current and past impact evaluation practices/methodologies across Member Organisations, identifying gaps and lessons learned
To develop an analysis of research portfolios and research output

Strategic Alignment

With Action 6 of the EUROHORCs and ESF Vision on a Globally Competitive ERA and their Road Map for Actions

Actions

1. Evaluation Guidelines

Draw up guidelines for ex-post evaluation of funding schemes
Do a survey among the forum members on evaluation organisation and practices
Develop a website repository containing evaluation reports and evaluation guidelines

2. Impact assessment on Science and Society

Inform about existing impact studies
Produce a template for categorising the impact studies
Conduct an in-depth analysis of impact assessment practices (methodology, criteria, best practice)

3. Comparative Research Portfolios

Examine feasibility pilot of the Health Research Classification System (HRCS) coding of portfolios
Produce a short paper summarising approaches for the analysis of output data

Contact

For further information on the ESF Member Organisation Forum on Evaluation of Publicly Funded Research, please contact in the Corporate Science Strategy Development (CSSD) Unit: