Research Group "Governance of Research"
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RESEARCH GROUP
- The Projects
- Associated Projects
- Ph.D Projects
- Projects of the First Funding Period (2003-2006)
- Demand for Research & Research Goals
The Demand for Research described below led to the establishment of the research Group "Governance of Research", which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The Research Group, fully named "International Competitiveness and Innovative Capacity of Universities and Research Organizations - New Forms of Governance", comprises the following participating and associated projects in the second funding period (2006-2009):
Locations of Participating and Central Projects
(Map: GNU Free Documentation Licence; Source: http://www.mygeo.info)
Demand for Research & Reserach Goals
Demand for Research
Since the beginning of the nineties German universities and state financed research organisations are exposed to high political and economic pressure. These organisations are confronted with changing and sometimes contradictory claims from state, industry and society. They have to face growing volatility, an acceleration and internationalization of the knowledge process. Thus, they need to find their position in the emerging European Research Area. It is the aim of the research group to analyze the ongoing reform process in the German research system systematically and empirically from an integrated perspective of law, economics and social science.
Long lasting principles of the German university are no longer taken for granted. Such principles are, for example, a relatively small differentiation and stratification within the Higher Education sector, nearly unlimited admission of students at no charge, the position of university teachers and their special rights derived from the freedom of research and teaching (e.g. patent rights), or traditional public accounting. Universities became subjects of public sector reforms which were driven by the concept of New Public Management. Key terms in this context are among others: evaluation of teachings and research, management by objectives, use of market mechanisms or elements simulating competition such as the formula-bounded distribution of resources, the stabilization and professionalization of management.
Within the state financed non-university research sector substantial restructurings are on the agenda for the first time since the consensus on domains has been established in the mid 1970s. The fundamental relation of the pillars within the German research system are under pressure to change as a result of the system evaluation conducted by the German Science Council (Wissenschaftsrat). Direct funding of research centres is replaced by budgets for a program-oriented funding of comprehensive research topics. Another example is the integration of the Society for Mathematics and Data Processing into the Fraunhofer Society.
On the one hand, the diagnoses of consulting in the political arena and the restructuring measures of research policy and research organizations themselves aim at introducing new, internal management procedures, strongly influenced by concepts of business administration. On the other hand, reforms aim at the boosting of external competition, the introduction of a strategic setting of emphases within program budgets as well as financing. In addition, these reforms are suppoesd to promote more cooperation and networks in view of the integration of many technologies and the increasing interdependence between basic and applied research. All this happens without a thorough empirical and theoretical analysis of the intended effects and possibly unintended consequences for the performance of the research system - i.e. innovative capacity and competitiveness of research. Rather, a mixture of reform eagerness, adjustment and blockade strategies prevails at present. Consequently, an unclear mix of organisational and state-level reforms plus their effects on the research function of the research system can be observed. The research group wants to focus particular on this research problem.
Research Goals
The research group aims at apprehending empirically and systematically the reality of the reform policy "on paper" and its implementation in universities and non-university research institutitons. Firstly, both the internal and external modes of Governance of the individual research and science organisations are to be regarded. In particular the steering mechanisms such as budget, personnel, law, organisation and decision-making procedures are to be examined. Secondly, the impact of the reforms on the research performance of the organizations in question is to be analysed. This is to be done above all with respect to the scope and the incentives for taking up innovative research questions. In doing so models from abroad are to be considered for comparison. Furthermore, a longitudinal comparison of changes and impacts of the reforms in the research system is to be conducted. Eventually recommendations for research policy and organisational design can be drawn from this. In summary, the project wants to analyse the positive and normative conditions for applying new forms of governancen in universities and non-university research organisations.
In analysing the reform process and its consequences for the German research system the research group brings together approaches from jurisprudence, economics and the social sciences. The common theoretical framework consists of actor related and institutionalist approaches. These approaches cover different mixtures of incentives, contractual design and the stabilisation of expectations by norms and confidence as coordination mechanisms in complex and interdependent constellations.
All together nine projects (P5 formally as an associated project) as well as four associated projects are cooperating in the second funding period. The projects are interlinked by shared sampling procedures, matching and nesting of research objects and the use of common context data. The second funding period was lauched recently after it had been approved by the DFG for a period of further three years until 30th November 2009. In this period the different projects will in particular focus on identifying the causes for the lacking, respectively poor or counterproductive, effects of changes in the modes of external and internal governance on universities and research organisations. Special emphasis will be put on the interlinkages between internal and external governance in funding programmes such as the initiative for excellence or the enforcement of evaluation of research. This could have a profound effect in terms of a stratification of the German higher education system and a stronger differenciation of research and teachings. The quest for the causes of the looming finding that the reforms initiated in Germany do only have a meagre effect demands for a comparison with long-established and more successful reform and governance models, respectively. This will also be a focus of the the second round of interviews. Therefore several projects will conduct or continue comparative studies on an international level. The work of the research group will be guided by three essential specifications on the design and relevance of the different dimensions of the governance model:
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Firstly, the most important outcome of the study of the reforms is that external Governance based on competition is gaining influence on the changes taking place both on the macro-level of internal governance of universities and research institutions and on the micro-level of research. Therefore, the analysis of the role of research funding organisations will be further deepened.
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Secondly, with the shift towards competition for third-party funding as well as towards competition for internal sources of funding, new tasks are emerging. Competition needs to be safeguarded and its quality needs to be secured in an incomplete market lacking transparent prices/qualities and sufficient "demand". Concerns are then e.g. the definition and implementation of large-scale funding programmes or the evaluation of research institutions. How and by whom will these tasks be fulfilled? What effects will this have on the internal governance of research institutions and the hitherto informal governance mechanisms dominating on the micro-level (networks, consensus on domains, intellectual coordination by the scientific community)? These questions will form a second focus of analysis of our research agenda. Conceivable inter alia is a break-up of the consensus on domains as a result of both application-oriented funding programmes and evaluation criteria emphasising the extra-scientific relevance of research.
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Thirdly, a result that came to the fore in all participating projects is to be taken in: the increasing importance of the EU on all levels of analysis of the research system (resarch and network action on the micro-level, strategies of internationalisation or towards third-party funding on the macro-level (universities, academic organisations and research institutions), effects on national research and funding policy). The research group wants to examine closer the supranational level with regard to its impacts on the macro-level (EU Framework Programmes, European Research Council, intermediary organisations on the EU-level) as well as from the "worm's eye view" of affected universities, research institutions and individual researchers.
First Funding Period (2003-2006)
During the first funding period (2003-2006) the research group comprised the following participating projects and associated projects: