The increasing professionalisation, mixed profiles, and institutional formal recognition of research managers and administrators (RMAs), namely at higher education institutions, has led to an increasing but modest volume of academic studies focused on their professional identity, roles, functions and impact. Based on an extensive literature…

Increasingly universities are becoming commercial enterprises and their core activities of teaching and research subject to business imperatives. This paper reviews the research costing methodologies of 17 Australian universities. Tension between Competition Law and Competitive Neutrality exists which could be resolved through improved costing and…

The first session of the 100th Congress has been transitional for national research and development policies because of the emergence of competitiveness as a major theme in American politics, the formation of a broad-based university-corporate alliance for lobbying, and growing public awareness of the potential commercialization of technology.…

The Danish government has awarded more direct control over funding of basic research to a higher education agency of the ministry of education, representing a step toward increasing both the quantity and quality of graduating scientists. However, new problems have arisen from this shift in policy. (MSE)

Explores how far British government policies influence academic values and ways of working through an examination of the United Kingdom Foresight Programme, a governmental effort to set priorities for research through identification of emerging technologies and markets. Feedback from scientists and social scientists found shifting attitudes toward…

Foresight analysis is proposed as an alternative to strategic planning in the scientific community, and its use by individual funding agencies to develop research resource allocation strategies for specific scientific fields is explored through an analysis in the field of cardiovascular research. Methodology is explained, and preliminary results…

Criticisms of the federal system of research funding, in which priorities among disciplines are set in a competitive and political environment, are outlined. Policymakers are challenged to allocate resources in such a way that economic performance is improved without restricting the freedom of individual scientists to set research directions.…

The history of direct government funding of research in Australia's higher education institutions is chronicled, focusing on the evolution of research policy and emphasis on excellence. The establishment of the Australian Research Council and its statement of specific mission and priorities is also detailed. (MSE)

Recent changes in the New Zealand government's research funding system are discussed, and the resulting system is detailed. Remaining structural problems, some of which are seen as constraining progress toward government priorities, are identified and likely solutions and trends indicated. (Author/MSE)

This paper describes the organization and planning for research and development in Sweden, particularly the role of higher education. A section on policies notes that the state has overall responsibility to fund basic research and the training of research workers. Issues receiving particular attention include environmental problems and new…

It is suggested that, in the Netherlands' system of resource allocation for research, there is subtle and powerful pressure for consensus. Changes in science policy orientation since the 1960s are traced, and the current framework for policy formation, planning, and decision making is sketched. Three peer review models are examined. (MSE)