1. www.rat-fte.at The Austrian RTD Funding System and the Role of Evaluation Michaela C. Topolnik Austrian Council for Research and Technology Development General Secretariat OECD, Madrid 3-4 July 2008

2. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK The Austrian RTD system Main actors The Austrian Council and its mission Main sources of RTD public funding Allocation of Resources Evaluation in the field of RTD in Austria Special Features and recent activities

3. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK Austria in intl. Comparison – EIS 2007 European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) of EC: Austria belongs to the group of the innovation followers Rank 13 global, Rank 8 within the EU

4. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK Target: 3% of GDP for RTD What Austria has achieved and its target for 2010 35,5% publicly funded 64,5% privatly financed Provided that the trend (recent growth rate of RTD expenditures: +8% in 2007) continues Austria will reach the 3% target in 2012.

5. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK The Austrian RDI Funding System I Policy and Agencies …. CDG, LBG, …. Austrian Science Board

6. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK The Austrian RDI Funding System II

7. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK The Austrian RDI Funding System II Agencies Science Fund FWF Basic Research Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG Applied Research University–industry cooperation Austrian Wirtschaftsservices AWS Business development (Innovation) Weitere: Christian Doppler Labors CDG, Ludwig Boltzmanngesellschaft LBG, …

8. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK The Austrian Council - The Austrian Council was established in September 2000. - It is an advisory body for the federal government, ministers and provincial governments in all issues related to RDI. - It provides systematic, independent and sound advice for the design and implementation of a future-oriented RTD policy. - The Council operates as the central hub of the widely spread network of the research and technology system. - 2005 the Council published the Strategy 2010. - Just recently it started a new process aiming at designing a long-term RTI-Strategy 2020 for Austria until mid 2009.

9. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK Austrian Council: Strategy 2010 Objectives -Placing Austria among the leading EU-members in RTD -Strengthening of the competitiveness and dynamics of the Austrian economy -Reaching the Barcelona targets -Further improving the framework conditions for research and innovation in Austria Strategic orientation -Fostering quality in all fields of research as the basis for reaching excellence at the top -Improving the networking and cooperation between science and economy -Increasing the effectiveness & efficiency of the funding system

10. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK The Austrian Council`s Mission The Council´s tasks are: -Setting up guidelines and giving recommendations for national research and technology programs and for promoting RTD institutions. -Evaluating and monitoring the implementation of recommendations and the strategy. -Making proposals for improving the co-operation between science and industry. -Furthermore in 2001 the Council was asked to give advice on how extra-financial funds for RTD provided by the government (not Councils money!) should be allocated. -2001 – 2006: 1109 mio. Euro; -Foundation for RTD: 85 – 125 mio. Euro each year since 2004.

11. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK Assessment and allocation The Austrian Council asked for -standardized program descriptions and -regular reports from the ministries. Scheme for the assessment of programs and initiatives: -Clear program description, objectives, indicators, target group / sector … -Evaluation concept (project selection process) -Evaluation plan (program evaluation: ex-ante, interim, ex-post) -type of funding - instruments (project, network, institution, etc) Till 2006 the Council decided on the allocation of funding for programs and initiatives based on this assessment and on evaluations (if available). Several times the Council put conditions to implement.

12. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK The Austrian Council and Evaluation - -Promotion of evaluation - -Asked for regular programme evaluation (evaluation plan!) - -Used evaluation as basis for public funding allocation - -Recommendations on evaluation in general (2003 and 2006) - -Book Evaluation of Austrian Research and Technology Policies (2007) - -Member of a Platform Research & Technology Policy Evaluation

13. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK Evaluation of Austrian Research and Technology Policies

14. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK Evaluation of Austrian Research and Technology Policies Evaluations 1994 - 2006 ~ 120 2003 - 200662 Evaluation of Institutions - Overview17 Ex-Ante Evaluations3 Mid Term and Real Time Evaluations20 Ex-post Evaluations10 Assessment, Policy, Fields & Systems Evaluation4 Writing about … Evaluation8 Before 200356 www.fteval.at

15. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK Evaluation at different levels - -Austrian Council: recommendations (2003, 2006), book, evaluation day - -Platform Research & Technology Policy Evaluation (platform fteval: 20 institutional members): standards of evaluation, newsletter, book, web site, workshops / training - -Evaluation at level of - - Projects (agencies; peer review, expert panels) - - Programms and institutions (ministries = programme owners; call for tender, contracts) - - Now: portfolio / system evaluation (ministries)

16. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK Evaluation – where to go? Within the last years in Austria evaluation (of interventions) have shown strong development, yet There are still issues to work on - -Full transparency (publication), frequency of evaluation - -Comparability - -improving the use of evaluation as learning tool - -proper implementation of results and reccommendations - -effectiveness and efficiency of funding and of instruments A well-developed evaluation structure is a central component of a learning and strategically oriented research and technology policy !

17. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK Austrian Council: RTDI Strategy 2020 (mid 2009) Nov. 2007: Zukunftsdialog Innovation for Austria by Austrian Federal Chancellery Systemevaluierung by BMVIT (portfolio evaluation of governmental RTD Funding) Forschungsdialog (research dialog) by BMWF

18. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK Contact Michaela C. Topolnik Austrian Council for Research and Technology Development Pestalozzigasse 4/ DG 1 A – 1010 Vienna Tel. +43 (1) 7131414-14 m.topolnik@rat-fte.at www.rat-fte.at

19. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK Austrian Council: RTDI Strategy till 2009

20. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK Statistics Austria: RTD expenditures (survey 2004) Quelle: F&E Statistik 2004

21. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK Main areas of activity of RDI expenditures source: Statistics Austria 2004 RTD survey Statistics Austria Survey 2004: basic research: 17,8% applied research: 37,8% experimental development: 45,2%

22. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK Unternehmerische Forschung Quelle: F&E Statistik 2004 F&E Quote 2004: 2,23% des BIP F&E Aufwendungen: 5,2 Mrd. Euro

23. Austrian Council 2008, M. TOPOLNIK akademische Forschung Quelle: F&E Statistik 2004 F&E Quote 2004: 2,23% des BIP F&E Aufwendungen: 5,2 Mrd. Euro