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

Abstract

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 highereducation 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 started. Benedetto Lepori is in the Research

Comparing the evolution of national research policies: what patterns of change?

“…First, most of them are based on the analysis of an individual case at country or even agency level and thus the possibility of generalising them has to be carefully discussed. Secondly, concerning project funding there is a remarkable lack of quantitative indicators and thus theses such as the increase of the share across time cannot easily be verified empirically (Lepori, 2006a;Lepori et al, 2008); for instance, we do not have any comparable information concerning the quantitative importance of this mode of allocation between countries. This is a major problem especially for historical analysis.…”

“…In this respect, national specificities appear to be the most important explaining factor. Thus, Switzerland has a research For France, higher education also includes PRO since no separation is possible policy model that assumes that the state should not directly finance industrial R&D; this model has survived strong pressure from the OECD during the 1980s (Lepori, 2006a). On the other hand, in the Italian case, project funding has been a choice instrument to support private research activities in a context in which private investments are much lower than in other countries.…”

“…In our sample, we can, however, identify different tendencies. In 1970, Norway and Switzerland had a significantly higher level of project funding (as a percentage of GDP) than the other countries; this can probably be related to the strength of the research councils system already created in the early post-war period (1952 for the Swiss National Science Foundation (Lepori, 2006a); between 1946 and 1949 for the Norwegian Research Councils (Skoie, 2000)). …”

“…A final remark concerns the fact that most of this change occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, while the 1990s have been characterised by greater stability or, even, by an increase in the share of academic instruments, a turn that is, for example, well-documented in the Swiss case (Lepori, 2006a). For the moment, it is not fully clear to what extent this has to be seen as a new policy shift back to the support of basic research (as initiatives such as the creation of a European research council could indicate) and whether this shift will be durable, but the last decade clearly did not continue the trend towards the 'useful science' of the 1970s and of the 1980s.…”

Impact of Swiss technology policy on firm innovation performance: an evaluation based on a matching approach

“…For overviews of Swiss technology policy see OECD (2006b) and European Commission (2008). Lepori (2006) gives a longterm analysis of public research policy primarily with respect to universities and public research organizations. Griessen and Braun (2006) deal with the problems of political coordination of innovation policies in Switzerland.…”