Evaluation of Research and Technology — Some Broader Considerations

Abstract

In recent years, the evaluation of research and development has become an increasingly widespread activity in industrialized countries. The reasons for this are not difficult to identify. Against a background of a desire by politicians of all denominations to demonstrate value-for-money in public expenditure, science and technology have been subjected to a level of scrutiny far higher than in the past. This has been accompanied by level budgets and growth in science-based technologies with the result that a policy of selectivity in research funding has been almost inevitable. Choice demands information and it is to evaluation that policymakers have turned.