R&D Units 2017/2018 evaluation

(available only in Portuguese)

The Draft Regulation for the Multiannual Evaluation and Financing of R&D Units , to be implemented in 2017/2018, is available on the FCT website. The project will be open for public consultation for 30 days, until June 5, after publication in the Official Gazette of the Union (2nd series – No. 79 – April 21, 2017). Comments can be sent to avalunidades@fct.pt .

The evaluation of R&D units aims to develop and enhance the National Science and Technology System in all areas of knowledge, strengthening it and increasing its territorial density. R&D units form the basis of the SCTN organization. They must, therefore, gather critical mass appropriate to their mission and promote work 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 resources and infrastructures, and that reinforce Portugal's international position. Thus, according to the proposal presented, existing R&D units may choose to maintain their current composition and organization or 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 developed 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, prioritizing quality and never quantity without considering the respective quality. In particular, units will be called upon to select information on their most relevant scientific production, rather than submitting exhaustive lists of publications or references to bibliometric indicators.

The proposed regulation adopts 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 activities, 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 Brazilian scientific community the understanding that the content of scientific publications and their academic, scientific, social or economic appropriation is much more important than the publication metrics or their assessment based on the entities that published them.

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