The Czech Ministry of Education commissioned Technopolis to design the methodology for a new approach to research assessment and performance-based research funding for the research and higher education sector in the country.

The design of the evaluation methodology and institutional funding principles was based on extensive review of international practice to produce a system design that is appropriate to the size, structure and economic constraints of the Czech Republic as well as on extensive consultation with the research community and a small pilot exercise.

The methodology addresses specific needs in the country. Foremost is the need for fairness and transparency in research assessment and institutional funding, and the importance of taking the diversity of actors involved into account, in terms of the scientific fields in which they are active and the missions of their category of research organisation. It avoids putting different types of research organisation, such as universities and Research and Technology organisations, in competition with each other. The new institutional funding system reflects the needs for some funding stability, while the evaluation system provides formative as well as summative inputs to policymaking overall and to the specific development of individual research groups and organisations. The methodology for the ‘National Evaluation of Research Organisations’ (NERO) is geared towards better capturing and rewarding the social and scientific value of research activities.

Technopolis led this project, in partnership with NIFU (Oslo), the Technology Centre ASCR (Prague) and Infoscience (Prague). The study followed up some of the recommendations of the International Audit of Research, Development & Innovation in the Czech Republic that Technopolis led in 2011.

The summary reports synthesises the following main and background reports:

• Final report 1 – The R&D Evaluation Methodology
• Final report 2 – The Institutional Funding Principles
• Final report 3 – The Small Pilot Evaluation and the Use of the RD&I Information System for Evaluation 

• Background report 1 – Evaluation Systems in International Practice
• Background report 2 – Typology of Research Organisations and the Effects of the EM Thresholds
• Background report 3 – Bibliometrics on and for the Czech republic
• Background report 4 – Detailed Evaluation Cost FrameworkBackground report 5 – Evaluation Handbook
• Background report 6 – R&D Governance and Funding Systems for Research in International Practice
• Background report 7 – The Institutional Funding System in the Czech Republic
• Background report 8 – Ex-ante Assessment of the Proposed Funding System
• Background report 9 – The RD&I Information System as an Information Tool for Evaluation
• Background report 10 – The Small Pilot Evaluation: Feedback and Results

Bea Mahieu
This person no longer works at Technopolis Group

Erik Arnold
Co-Founder, Senior Partner