U.S. Evaluation of Strategic Research: Closing the Gap with Europe and Japan

Abstract

In the 1980s, a gap seemed to open between the level of research evaluation activity in the United States and the level in Europe and Japan. The surge in European efforts in retrospective research evaluation began at the Commission of the European Communities in the late 1970s. The Commission sponsored a series of conferences in the 1970s and 1980s to discuss the idea of research evaluation in the European context and to assess progress. By the mid-1980s, all Community research programs were on a regular schedule of evaluation (see Boggio and Spachis-Papazois, 1984.) Following closely behind, individual Community nations, including France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, began to gear up for appraisal of their local institutions (see Gamier, 1983; Moed et al., 1985; Department of Trade and Industry, 1988), and the Nordic countries collectively increased their expertise and activity (see Ormala, 1987). The European Community eventually established a network of evaluation methodologists, allowing countries and Community alike to share knowledge and experience.