The Balancing Role of Evaluation in Organisational Governance: an International Comparison of Publicly Funded Research Institutions

Publicly funded research institutions (PRI) are increasingly required to provide reliable evidence of their effectiveness. The evaluation mechanism works at three levels: central supervisory body, specific institutes, and individual researchers and involves internal and external stakeholders (government, scientific community, universities, industries, public etc.). How can diverse and often conflicting stakeholders’ interests be taken into account? To address this question, the authors used a conceptual framework grounded in neo-institutionalism principles to illuminate the role of evaluation throughout the policy and implementation cycle in the Max Planck Society (MPG), the Helmholtz Association (HGF) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).