Research monitoring
Dieser Artikel in Deutsch
Continuous monitoring of German research is the mission taken up by the newly founded Institute for Research Information and Quality Assurance (IFQ), which commenced its activities in October 2005. Headed by Professor Dr. Stefan Hornbostel, the IFQ has initially been set up in close proximity of the German Research Foundation (DFG). The DFG is to fund the institute as a Central Research Facility with 1.25 million EUR for the first two years. While the emphasis will be mainly on evaluating DFG funding programmes in the institute's starting-up phase, the establishment of a German competency centre for research evaluation is envisaged in the long term. In this context, the European Research Area will also be considered. In future, the IFQ's tasks will include benchmarking European research institutions, analysing European funding instruments and improving information on actors and achievements in German research.
"In addition to the development of suitable methodical instruments, one of our first projects is to develop a monitoring system for the various DFG funding programmes," Hornbostel explains. "For example, we are going to keep more systematic records of the research results from sponsored projects and the academic careers of junior scientists and scholars. This will allow us to determine to what degree the targets set have been attained." One of the aspects to be examined is whether there are topics or groups of persons that don't fit into the pattern of the funding system. These could include junior researchers who have not established themselves yet as well as scientists and scholars specialising in interdisciplinary areas who are therefore difficult to assign to subjects.
In order to ensure that the IFQ is integrated into the German research scene, Hornbostel has linked his activities as the institution's director with a professorship at Berlin's Humboldt University.
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