Over the past decades, science funding shows a shift from recurrent block funding towards project funding mechanisms. However, our knowledge of how project funding arrangements influence the organizational and epistemic properties of research is limited. To study this relation, a bridge between science policy studies and science studies is…

The past three decades have witnessed a sharp reduction in the rate of growth of public research funding, and sometimes an actual decline in its level. In many countries, this decline has been accompanied by substantial changes in the ways that such funding has been allocated and monitored. In addition, the institutions governing how research is…

The emergence of vibrant research communities of computer scientists in Kenya and Uganda has occurred in the context of neoliberal privatization, commercialization, and transnational capital flows from donors and corporations. We explore how this funding environment configures research culture and research practices, which are conceptualized as…

Structure and organization seems to be at the root of many of the questions raised about institutional behaviour; however, with respect to research on university capacity building, few studies have examined research organizational problems, particularly in developing countries. This study investigates academic reactions to the structure and…

This paper offers a conceptually novel contribution to the understanding of the distinctive governance challenges arising from the increasing reliance on formalized knowledge in the governance of research activities. It uses the current Australian research governance system as an example--a system which exhibits a comparatively strong degree of…

The Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter (LRSM), University of Pennsylvania, was built in 1965 as part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency's (ARPA) Interdisciplinary Laboratories (IDL) program intended to foster interdisciplinary research and training in materials science. The process that led to the construction of the…

When the journal "Minerva" was founded in 1962, science and higher educational issues were high on the agenda, lending impetus to the interdisciplinary field of "Science Studies" "qua" "Science Policy Studies." As government expenditures for promoting various branches of science increased dramatically on…

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the nature of bureaucratization within public research bodies and its relationship to scientific performance, focusing on an Italian case-study. The main finding is that the bureaucratization of the research sector has two dimensions: public research labs have academic bureaucratization since researchers…

This paper discusses the relationship between internationalisation, mobility, quality and equality in the context of recent developments in research policy in the European Research Area (ERA). Although these developments are specifically concerned with the growth of research capacity at European level, the issues raised have much broader relevance…

Universities have long been involved in knowledge transfer activities. Yet the last 30 years have seen major changes in the governance of university-industry interactions. Knowledge transfer has become a strategic issue: as a source of funding for university research and (rightly or wrongly) as a policy tool for economic development. Universities…

The accurate measurement of the time spent by academics on research and development activities is of great importance to universities and government. This essay outlines the ways in which different countries estimate these factors, and suggests ways of producing more reliable estimates.

For academic administrators, the management of research remains a matter more of hope than expectation. It has proved particularly difficult to measure quality. Managers typically view research as an "asset". This essay argues that it is more useful to view research and its management as "process", and explores the implications of doing so for…

This essay highlights three converging trends experienced by "public sector research" during the past decade. Looking especially at France, our discussion draws attention to the new roles of universities, the blurring of relationships between types of research institutions and research activities, and the development of "research…