Also that a more formal use of foresight elements could improve the legitimacy and impact of the strategic considerations of research councils and research programmes.
and new challenges faced by the research councils. We also argue that a more formal use of foresight elements might improve the legitimacy and impact of the strategic considerations of research councils and research programmes.
Keywords: technology and innovation studies; socio-technical; public research organisatioons foresight; science and technology and innovation policy studies 1. Introduction The setting of priorities in science
In some countries (for example, Norway) research councils have played a key role in initiating and sponsoring foresight activities as a strategic input to funding activities.
In other countries foresight exercises have been carried out on the national level by entities (private or public) other than research councils and related organisations.*
and M. Borup However, there is often great uncertainty about how to implement foresight exercises within research councils and how to use the results.
there are still also many research councils and programmes that do not use foresight exerciise in their work.
The analysis in this paper builds on the basic observation that all research councils and research programmes foresight or not do strategic thinking and set up smaller or larger, formal or informal,
Instead of analysing directly the difficulties with using foresiigh as a strategic input to research council funding activities,
and new challenges faced by research councils. Furthermore, it is the aim to investigate if more formal use of foresight elements might improve strategic consideration by research councils
and research programmes. 2. Foresight and strategy processes in Research strategy and priority-setting processes have probably always been used by research communities,
As neither research councils nor national research programmes by themselves create technological innovation, the concepts of national innovation systems (NIS) and technology innovation systeem (TIS) are important in understanding how new technologies emerge
The same type of rationale is used often also for strategy processes in research councils and research programmes. Examplle of strategy and priority-setting processes in public research can be found from Spain, UK, Norway, The netherlands, France and Denmark in a report from the European project MUSCIPOLI (Siune 2001.
As a consequence, the positioning and organisational structure of a research council or research programme's strategic research,
In the archetypal version of this, understanding of strategy priority-setting in research councils comes about after negotiations between its members
Whatever priority-setting research councils undertake in this perspective it is based on competeenc (scientific strengths or weaknesses),
etc. 3. Case studies 3. 1. Research councils and national research programmes Research councils and national research programmes account for a smaller percentage of total research funding than direct government funding of universities and research institutions,
Most European countrrie have research councils, research programmes or similar institutions, but their structure varies significantly (EU DG Research 2005).
It is difficult to obtain comparable statistics for research council funding activities on the scale of the European union (EU) or countries of the Organisation for Economic cooperation and Development (OECD). In Denmark,
approximately 20 25%of public research is funded through research councils and national research programmes (Forskningsstyrelsen 2003). Both national research councils and research programmes often channel money to new and important emerging research areas and topics.
Research councils and programmes often constitute a more dynamic element in science than do universities and research institutions.
Research councils and research programmes offer a much more dynamic and prioritisable instrument in national science systems. Also, by representing a second strand of research funding,
The research councils were reorganised in early 2005. There is now a clearer distinction between the independeen research council (with five traditional disciplinary councils;
one being comparable with the one we studied) and a strategic research council (with five programme committees.
The actors involved in developing the plan were primarily members of the research council and employees of the Research Agency.
which they encouraged all the research councils to follow (only the Medical Research council resisted using the brief format).
Whereas the earlier plans focused on‘internal'prioritisation and strategic action within the research council and on the different sub-areas of research, the plan for 2003 2007 emphasised the difference that science
as well as plans for other research councils, such as the Natural science Research council, received broad input from many different actors during the process of strategy development.
In contrast, apart from the actors mentioned above the research council members, the agency employees, the PR company and the authors of the vision papers only a few other persons were involved directly in the development of the Strategy plan 2003 2007.
Itwas not expected that the 2003 2007 planwould have a mediating and coordinating role in the research community or internally within the research council.
In practice, however, there are indications that the Strategy plan 2003 2007 has, at least to some extent, had the effect of coordinating and giving direction to the research community.
or action plans, following the Strategy plan are expected not from the research council for the time being. Downloaded by University of Bucharest at 05:09 03 december 2014 926 P. D. Andersen
In the case of the research council there does not seem to be a formal or predetermined process for developing Strategy development of strategy is a muddling-through process,
Technical research Council Energy research programme Actors involved Programme management Research council Research Agency (secretariat) Energy Authority Core group in strategy processes Research council Research Agency (secretariat+strategy
and at a workshop with the participation of research council members and civil servants affiliated to some of the relevant research councils and research programmes.
demarcation, e g. against natural science and the natural science research council Downloaded by University of Bucharest at 05:09 03 december 2014 930 P. D. Andersen and M. Borup 4. Conclusion In contrast to basic funding for universities
research councils and national research programmes are a dynamic part of national science systems. If a national science system is perceived as an important element of the overall national innovation system then priority-setting processes of research councils
and research programmes can be of legitimate strategic interest to governments. Our analysis shows that research councils and research programmes do carry out strategy processes
and that the processes are based not only on scientific excellence (peer review, etc.),), but also have a strong element of prospective outlook similar to foresight exercises.
Not least the research council case could have benefited from a more formal and structured process. This would have improved the transparency of the process.
Our study indicates that the impact of foresight exercises on strategic decisions in research councils and programmes can be improved
whereas research councils seem to follow other models. There is no doubt that a more rational-analytical approach is appealing, especially for technical research councils.
A clearer inclusion of stakeholders and of the general public in the research council case would have improved the plan's legitimacy;
Acknowledgements The work behind this article received funding from the Danish Social science Research council through the project,‘Strategies and identity of science a study of strategy processes in national research programmes'.
The exercise was organised by the FNR (Fonds national de la recherche or National research Fund), the only research council in Luxembourg.
and the UK Research councils in that it allocates funding to high-quality basic research based on the evaluation of submitted research proposal.
, A. Geldart, The social and economic challenges of nanotechnology, Swindon Economic and Social science Research council, 2003 (available at:
but a pattern repeated by research councils and charitable funding organisations. This could be interpreted as a response to uncertainty an attempt to facilitate those most likely by their track record of excellence to achieve breakthroughs that may have a transformative effect.
a noncompetitive part (such as direct appropriations to universities and institutions) and a competitive part (such as funds distributed by research councils
Final proposal Dialogue with stakeholder organisations, ministries and research councils Reduction to 21 themes for strategic research Strategic research council (14) Independent research council (18) Contacts in ministries (15
That is, whether the massive spikes in public resources should be transmitted to universities and research councils, or whether they should be distributed through large-scale national programs,
support streams for basic research via research councils, mission-oriented agencies, and strateegi funds of various types constitute different policy layers, sometimes,
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