FCT contributes to OECD report on Excellence in Research

Research Excellence Initiatives reflect the efforts of various governments to promote efficiency and innovation by replacing institutional funding with more competitive forms of funding. They are a response to growing competition for ideas, human capital, and funds. 

The Research Excellence Initiatives instruments are designed to foster top-level research in higher education institutions and public R&D centers by providing large-scale, long-term funding to specific research centers. These instruments combine institutional funding and research project funding and have become widespread, particularly over the last decade, in more than two-thirds of OECD countries. The report Promoting Research Excellence: New Approaches to Funding, published this month by the OECD, presents and discusses some of the benefits of Research Excellence Initiatives, based on preliminary results from three surveys conducted in several OECD countries, and also presents potential risks and recommendations.

Centers of Excellence, selected under the Research Excellence Initiatives, have long-term resources at their disposal, enabling them to carry out ambitious and multidisciplinary research programs, supported by state-of-the-art equipment and infrastructure. These Centers therefore play a crucial role not only in creating new lines of research but also in strengthening human capital and, in general, in developing a country's R&D capacity and visibility. 

Research Excellence Initiatives also allow for greater mobility of researchers, enabling Centers of Excellence to recruit the best researchers, both national and foreign. The activities of these Centers often expand to other departments and centers within the host institution, but this may increase the risk of divisions between departments or research centers. Another potential risk discussed in the report is the concentration of resources in a few Centers of Excellence, which could, in the long term, undermine the competitiveness of Research Excellence Initiatives by promoting the financial reinforcement of already established institutions. The report therefore recommends that impact studies be carried out to quantify the effects of the Research Excellence Initiatives on R&D systems, society, and the well-being of citizens.

In Portugal, research centers receive competitive multi-year funding based on the results of international peer reviews. The chapter on Excellence in Research in Portugal, prepared by FCT, focuses on R&D Units and Associate Laboratories as Excellent in the last evaluation exercise. Centers of Excellence in Portugal cover the areas of Engineering and Technology, Medical Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences and Humanities. There is a higher number of researchers in the first three areas of study mentioned.

The Centers perform most of the activities traditionally associated with research centers: advanced training, research, technology transfer, and spin-offs. Significantly autonomous from their academic host institutions in terms of research lines and resource management, the Centers establish a mutually beneficial relationship with their host institutions. On the one hand, they contribute to increasing the visibility of their host universities, which, in turn, provide them with collaborations with faculty and access to graduate students and researchers.