The RCN’s advisory role
Stig Slipersæter and Randi Søgnen
The Research Council of Norway
– central tasks
 Research funding
 Support basic and applied research
 Implement and support research on national thematic
priorities
 support all science & technology fields
 Support private R&D
 Adviser to the government
 Arenas for dialogue, networking and
dissemination
 Internationalisation
The research and innovation system
The RCNs advisory role
 To whom?
 Governmental authorities
 Research actors
 Business sectors
 How?
 Through various products of advice, often based on broad
prosesses of consensus-building, networking and negotiations
 What?
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Examples of pieces of advice:
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The RCN budget proposals
Input to White papers
RCN’s policies and strategies
Input to the Long-term plan for research and higher education (2015 –
2019)
Long-term plan for research and higher education (2015-2024)
Oceans
Environment and
energy
Marint
Miljøvennlig energi
Maritimt
Klimasystem og
tilpasning
Fornyelse i offentlig
sektor
Velferd-, helse- og
omsorgstjenester
Petroleum
Miljø og samfunn
Utdanning og læring
Public services
Enabling
technologies
A competitive
industry
Excellence in
research
IKT
Næringsliv i bredden
Fagmiljøer og
talenter
Kommersialisering
Forskningsinfrastruktur
Nærings- og
samfunnsutfordringer
Internasjonalisering
Bio- og
Nanoteknologi
Avanserte prod.
prosesser
Science advice and credibility
 The advisory role must be exercised with the trust – of
 Government authorities
 HEIs/institute sector
 The business sector
… our main target groups
 And the trust is fundamental for the legitimacy and
credibility of our advice function
 And the credibility is mainly (but not only) based on a
well developed knowledge base/strategic intelligence
Elements in the knowledge base
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… building strategic intelligence through
three main elements:
 analyzing past behaviour (evaluations)
 reviewing research/technological options for
the future (foresight)
 assessing the result and effects of the investments (effect
studies)
Sources for improving the knowledge base
 statistics and indicators
 evaluations, monitoring, foresight studies
 other kinds of analyses, ad-hoc studies, etc.
 through research programmes (FORINNPOL)
 through (learning)arenas for dialogue, cooperation, discussions/debate
Focus on two sources of strategic
intelligence in the RCN
 Evaluations
 Statistics and indicators
Research Evaluation in RCN
 RCN’s evaluations shall enhance the quality, efficiency
and relevance of the research sector
 The evaluations activities shall:
 facilitate RCNs funding allocation
 support the RCNs advisory role towards the Norwegian
government, ministries and the research
community/research institutions
 inform STI policy debate
RCN’s evaluation activities
 Subject-specific evaluations/discipline evaluations
 Evaluations of the reserach institutes
 Evaluations of funding instruments, programmes or other
council activities
 Research based evaluation of policy reforms
 Foresight exercises
A shift in RCNs evaluation
orientation/activities
 More weight on prioritizing evaluations with regard
to the need and expected usefulness
 Emphasis on following up main findings in evaluations
 Emphasis on RCN’s own activities to develop further our
funding instruments
 More weigth on impact assessments
Statistics and indicators for advice
Stig Slipersæter
RCN involvement in statistics and indicators
 National responsibility for statistics on R&D and
innovation delegated from government
 Commission external projects and studies
 In-house statistics and analyses
 Participation in international activities, e.g.
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OECD
EU
Science Europe,
TAFTIE – The European Network of Innovation Agencies
Other bi- and multilateral collaborations
RCN national responsibilities
 Commission national R&D and innovation statistics
 National statistics based on OECD framework
 Covers HEI, research institutes, hospitals and business
sector
 Annual or bi-annual data collection
 Carried out by independent agencies NIFU and Statistics
Norway
 RCN responsibility
 Provide funding
 Quality assessment and reporting to government
 Further development of statistics and indicators
according to need
Report on Science & Technology
Indicators for Norway
 Annual edition, published by RCN
 As a book (240 pages)
 Part of RCN website
 Editorial board
 Contents:
 Presentation of national R&D and
innovation statistics
 International comparisons (data from
OECD and Eurostat)
 Indicators on higher education,
patents, bibliometrics, collaboration,
EU FP participation etc
 Short commentaries
From Norway in the world
…
… to the regions
of Norway
Commissioned reports, example bibliometrics
 Strengths and
weaknesses of the
national R&D system
 Publication patterns
 Citations
 International comparisons
 Background information
for evaluations
 Strategic advise and
new instruments
 Emerging fields
 Collaboration patterns
Bibliometrics used in
evaluations
In-house data and analysis
 Data collected through
electronic handling of proposals,
proposal evaluations, contracts,
and reports
 All funded projects tagged
according to a set of
dimensions, e.g.
 RCN instruments
 Disciplines, technologies and
thematic focus
 Government policy priorities
 Types of research (basic, applied
etc)
 Data on the project (who,
cooperates with whom, where,
amounts of funding etc)
 E.g. institutions, business
sectors, regions, countries of
international cooperation
RCN funding by industrial sector
Monitoring Norway’s participation in H2020
Mill
NOK
Wrapping up
 Statistics and indicators are fundamental for assessing:
 How Norway’s research develops compared to other countries
 Strengths and weaknesses overall, and in fields and thematic areas
 Identifying emerging and declining fields
 Development of various business sectors and regions
 International funding and collaboration
 RCN portfolio
 Thus a central part of the knowledge base for advice
 Which fields to prioritize
 How to improve structure of national research and innovation
system
 How to increase international engagement