Abstract:Many countries witness the rise of 'excellence initiatives'. These policies promote vertical differentiation in the science system by funding top research performers and expecting positive spill-over effects. However, current understanding of the functioning and (potential) effects of these instruments is limited. We compare policies aimed at promoting excellence in four countries (the UK, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland), using secondary sources and 14 expert interviews. Using the notion of coordination approaches as a heuristic tool, we characterise each policy in terms of the coordinating actor, the system addressed, the activities that are coordinated, the specific interventions taken and the types of relationships affected. We find that countries adopt very different approaches to reach similar goals and thus bring into question appealing but simplistic ideas of 'excellence' as an agreed concept. Remarkably, excellence policies are more prone to reveal existing but tacit diversity in the system than to generate new relational patterns.http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/spp
AbstractMany countries witness the rise of 'excellence initiatives'. These policies promote vertical differentiation in the science system by funding top research performers and expecting positive spill-over effects. However, current understanding of the functioning and (potential) effects of these instruments is limited. We compare policies aimed at promoting excellence in four countries (the UK, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland), using secondary sources and 14 expert interviews. Using the notion of coordination approaches as a heuristic tool, we characterise each policy in terms of the coordinating actor, the system addressed, the activities that are coordinated, the specific interventions taken and the types of relationships affected. We find that countries adopt very different approaches to reach similar goals and thus bring into question appealing but simplistic ideas of 'excellence' as an agreed concept. Remarkably, excellence policies are more prone to reveal existing but tacit diversity in the system than to generate new relational patterns.Keywords: excellence; science policy; coordination; differentiation; Matthew Effect
IntroductionIn many countries promoting scientific excellence has become the primary target of science policy. A generic measure is to make research funding conditional upon performance. Several countries have introduced performance-based research funding system in which resources are directed towards excellent performers (Hicks 2012;Lewis & Ross 2011;Lewis 2015;Jonkers & Zacharewicz 2016). In addition, funding has shifted from institutional core funding to competitive project funding (Lepori et al. 2007;Jongbloed et al 2015). In a recent report, the OECD observed the emergence of research excellence initiatives (REIs) aimed at encouraging 'outstanding research by providing large-scale, long-term funding to designated research units, with an emphasis on research of exceptional quality.' (OECD 2014, p. 2...