Project: Research assessment in change: inclusion in scientific systems and mission-oriented projects in Global South research funding initiatives. Reforming quality assessment through progressive and evidence-based methodologies
Institution: Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), through the Latin American Forum for Research Evaluation (FOLEC)
Project duration: from December 2020 to May 2022
Purposes
This project aims to understand how various approaches and methodologies for assessing research quality affect the way research funding is allocated in the Global South.
Analyze how the quality of research proposals for funding could be assessed in order to better align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), global "major challenges" and critical situations, particularly in the context and socio-economic imperatives of the Global South.
Explore how progressive and situated research evaluation can facilitate funding schemes and decisions that promote more inclusive research systems through the participation of traditionally excluded groups and regions and/or institutions with less established research capabilities.
Objectives
Analyze a variety of initiatives from national science and technology councils/funding agencies in low- and middle-income countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia, highlighting innovative principles, tools and best practices related to inclusion in scientific systems (with respect to promoting the participation of traditionally excluded groups such as women, early career researchers, indigenous peoples and/or Afro-descendants in the region) and the direction of research funds oriented towards sustainable development goals (SDGs), “missions/problems” and/or “major challenges” through progressive and situated research evaluation methodologies.
The study focuses on the programs/calls of national science and technology councils and/or research agencies in a selection of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Costa Rica) and Asia (Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India).
Methodology
The research focuses on a qualitative approach, based on qualitative and quantitative empirical data, to understand how research projects are evaluated for funding. As part of a flexible design, the study involves various research phases deployed at different times.
The first part consists of a critical review of the most recent studies on research evaluation; inclusiveness in scientific systems, mission-oriented research, and evaluation methodologies from the perspective of the Global South. Secondly, the project has three distinct stages associated with fieldwork, namely:
i) identification of instruments to promote research (calls for competitive funds), in particular those funds that stimulate research aimed at addressing the problems of social and economic development of countries (productive problems, public policy, health, environmental, energy, social exclusion, poverty, etc.);
ii) survey/survey of the evaluation methods for these competitive funds for the allocation of resources to research aimed at addressing these problems; and,
iii) multiple case study to delve deeper into the forms and practices of evaluation from a more qualitative perspective, with the purpose of potentially contributing to comparative research on scientific systems and research evaluation in the Global South.
In this sense, the project seeks to capture a complex and diversified map of social and local relevance of research, through the application of methodologies that place decision-makers, researchers and users of research results at the center of the stage.
Activities and results
During the course of the project, a transparent online platform will be developed, published, and updated, including an open and accessible database of case studies, the international survey, interviews, and knowledge products available to potential users. CLACSO's extensive experience in knowledge dissemination as part of the research process, along with the mobilization of key non-academic stakeholders, will be a major contribution to the project. Finally, best practices will be identified and recommendations formulated, which will be published as two short discussion papers prepared prior to the regional consultations for discussion within that framework, along with an open-access digital academic publication that compiles the various contributions of the project.
Keywords: research-oriented, evaluation; methodologies, inclusion, Global South.
Work team
Laura Rovelli, coordinator of the Latin American Forum on Scientific Evaluation (FOLEC-CLACSO); Dominique Babini, open science advisor at CLACSO; Gabriel Vélez Cuartas, director of the Center for Social and Human Research at the University of Antioquia; Natalia Gras, researcher at the Sectoral Commission for Scientific Research (CSIS), Uruguay; Judith Sutz, researcher at the Sectoral Commission for Scientific Research (CSIS), Uruguay; Prof. TA Abinandanan, Coordinator of the Centre of Policy Research, Indian Institute of Science, India; researcher Venkat Nadella, Centre of Policy Research, Indian Institute of Science, India; researcher Poonam Pandey, Centre of Policy Research, Indian Institute of Science, India.
Coordinator: Pablo Vommaro, Director of Research at CLACSO
Supports: Paola Oliveira, assistant to the Executive Secretariat of CLACSO
Allied institution
Collaborating institutions
Reports
Latin American profiles of public policy instruments in research and innovation and the role of the SDGs. Research report
This paper proposes a documentary analysis of research and innovation funding instruments available online and offered by national government agencies and some provincial agencies in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Mexico and Brazil. The primary purpose is to profile the research and innovation orientations proposed as general public guidelines for the scientific, technological, and humanistic communities in Latin America and the Caribbean. In response to global shifts in the frameworks for understanding the utility and use of research and innovation for the survival of the human species, this paper explores the orientation these instruments are adopting to address the UN's consensus-based Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030.
This exercise aims to find possible niches that are being generated from the interest of governments at least in generating some kind of expectations towards the promotion of systems closer to transformative and responsible research instruments with the focus of analysis proposed in this text (Molas Gallart & Rafols, 2018; Panciroli et al. 2020).
The task began with a search of every national and provincial government website of public agencies responsible for these types of activities: councils, ministries, agencies, funds, among others. The search covered each country from the Rio Grande (the border between Mexico and the United States) to the Chilean and Argentine Patagonia. The data obtained were as follows:
4070 calls for proposals from 37 Science and Technology Agencies in 10 Latin American and Caribbean countries were retrieved from the information available on official websites from 2004 to June 2021.
Available on: https://biblioteca-repositorio.clacso.edu.ar/bitstream/CLACSO/16929/1/Informe-IDRC-FOLEC-ESP.pdf
Latin American profiles of public policy instruments in research and innovation and the role of the SDGs. Research report
This paper sets out to perform a documentary analysis of the financial instruments for research and innovation available on the internet and offered in Latin American and Caribbean countries by state agencies at national level, and at state provincial level, in the case of Mexico and Brazil. The basic aim is to gain an overview of research and innovation orientations that are proposed as general public guidelines within the fields of science, technology and humanities in Latin America and The Caribbean. In response to global transitions on frameworks of understanding of the usefulness and use of research and innovation for the survival of the human species, a particular exploration is made of the orientation of these instruments to address what the UN by consensus has proposed as the 2030 SDGs.
This exercise seeks to find possible niches that are being generated as a result of governments' interest in at least generating some type of expectation regarding the promotion of more transformative and responsible research systems with the focus of analysis proposed by this text (Molas Gallart and Rafois, 2018; Panciroli et al., 2020.)
The work began by searching the websites of every national and provincial public agency involved in this type of activity: councils, ministries, agencies, funds, among others. We went from country to country, from the Rio Grande (on the border of Mexico and the United States) to Chilean and Argentine Patagonia. The data obtained is as follows: Some 4070 calls for funding were found by 37 science and technology agencies in 10 Latin American and Caribbean countries, based on the information available on official websites from 2004 to June 2021. Table 1 specifies the distribution of agencies, countries and number of calls.
Available at: https://biblioteca-repositorio.clacso.edu.ar/bitstream/CLACSO/16930/1/Informe-IDRC-FOLEC-ENG.pdf
Project report presentation
Discussion: "Business innovation policy - challenges and controversies"
Organized by the Science, Technology and Innovation Governance and Management Network – Red GCTI with the support of the Faculty of Business Administration and the Faculty of Finance, Government and International Relations.
Gabriel Velez Cuartas, author of the report "Latin American profiles of public policy instruments in research and innovation and the role of the SDGs. Research report» will participate as a panelist in this event, with the theme "Overview of policies in Latin America for innovation within the framework of the SDGs."
Date: March 3th 2022
Modality: Online – Prior registration required
More information: https://www.uexternado.edu.co/evento/administracion-de-empresas/conversatorio-la-politica-de-innovacion-empresarial-retos-y-controversias/
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