OECD ISSUE BRIEF: RESEARCH ORGANISATION EVALUATION

This brief focuses on the evaluation of research organisations. Evaluation is a policy tool which is used to steer, manage and improve the activities of and investments in public sector research organisations. It is also used to change the distribution of funding among research organisations. Modes and mechanisms of evaluation have been developing over recent decades as budget holders have demanded accountability for public money spent, in common with other areas of public expenditure. In addition to simply justifying research budgets at a political level is the desire for evaluation to reveal the breadth of impacts of research, and the relative academic quality of research organisations and the research groups within them, with reference to both the national and the international frame. It sits alongside performance measurement systems, monitoring and performance indicators which are commonly implemented for the management and control of public sector bodies.