Evaluation of R&D Units 2017/2018

The Draft Regulation for the Evaluation and Multiannual Financing of R&D Units, to take place in 2017/2018, is available on the FCT website. The draft is up for public consultation for 30 days, until June 5, after publication in the Diário da República (2nd series - No. 79 - April 21, 2017). Comments can be sent to avalunidades@fct.pt.

The evaluation of R&D units is aimed at developing and enhancing the National Scientific and Technological System in all areas of knowledge, strengthening it and making it more territorially dense. R&D units form the basis of the organization of the SCTN. They must therefore gather critical mass appropriate to their mission and promote working environments conducive to scientific creativity, talent promotion and the development of scientific careers.

Institutional diversity is a factor in the development and enrichment of the SCTN, which is why we encourage the consideration of different organizational models that ensure good use of human resources, technical means and infrastructures, and that strengthen Portugal's international affirmation. Thus, according to the proposal presented, existing R&D units can choose to maintain their current composition and organization or to reorganize themselves in the configuration they consider most appropriate.

It is proposed that the assessment of scientific quality and the analysis of the relevance, merit and timeliness of the activities carried out by R&D units be based on the scientific and technological production of the last five years considered most relevant by the R&D unit, giving priority to quality and never quantity without considering the respective quality. In particular, units will be asked to select information on their most relevant scientific output, rather than submitting exhaustive lists of publications or references to bibliometric indicators.

The proposed regulation takes on board the recommendations of important international memoranda and documents, such as the San Francisco Declaration of the American Society for Cell Biology, on the evaluation of research and development activity, of December 2012, and the Recommendations of the Commission on Professional Self-Regulation in Science of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), of September 2013, and takes into account the objections to the direct use of bibliometric indicators expressed in the Leiden Manifesto on the use of metrics in scientific evaluation, of April 2015, in order to consolidate in the Portuguese scientific community the understanding that the content of scientific publications and their academic, scientific, social or economic appropriation is much more important than publication metrics or their assessment according to the entities that published them.

The document now available will be adjusted according to the proposals received from the scientific community. Get involved!