Performance Evaluation in Institutions of the NAS of Ukraine: An Effective Tool for Enhancing the Level and Relevance of Scientific Research (based on the presentation)

Abstract

The article contains an extensive review of the Methodology for Performance Evaluation of Research Institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NAS of Ukraine, Academy) introduced in 2017. Its goal is to evaluate the institution’s performance, with highlighting its contribution to the development of R&D sector with consideration to its specific features and uniqueness. The evaluation is based on a set of criteria: quality, originality, effectiveness, novelty, accuracy, relevance, theoretical and practical significance, competitiveness, impact on a narrower research area and a wider sphere of social life, social significance, etc. Apart from the institution as a whole, the evaluation covers each research unit. Evaluation results are used in estimating the scope of budget financing of the institutions and in the competitive selection of projects on line of a budgetary program for the Academy financing. It is stressed that the evaluation by a broad set of criteria makes institutions draw special attention to the quality of research results. An evidence of this is theoretical and applied results produced in harsh conditions of the war, which review is given in the article. It is emphasized that the experts involved in the evaluation assign a high weight to the profile of international science and technology cooperation in an institution, providing a strong impetus for its expansion. The results produced by this methodology were relied upon by the Presidium of the NAS of Ukraine in elaborating a set of measures for optimization of the Academy’s research network, in introducing the elements of a new model for R&D financing in the Academy that accounts for the institution’s performance and the need for priority support of competitive research institutions. It was concluded that the evaluation based on this methodology could become an effective tool for enhancing the level and relevance of R&D, generating new theoretical knowledge and performing important applied research that is supposed to contribute to the socio-economic development of Ukraine.