Research policies for universities: The funding of research centers in Galicia

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24965/gapp.i28.10955

Keywords:

Research funding, universities, regional R&D policies, instruments for the promotion of science

Abstract

Research funding is a tool for governments to promote change in universities. Governments have tried to steer universities «from a distance» by changing the ways in which they are funded and enhancing evaluation. The article analyses a funding instrument for university R&D centres of the Xunta de Galicia, its rationale and the mechanisms through which change is promoted. It also analyses how the outcomes pursued are conditioned by the existing instruments and by institutional constraints. The study confirms that progress in the objectives pursued by one instrument may be limited by others instruments, in the absence of coherence in the instrument-mix; also that institutional constraints, derived from the university governance model, may hinder the transformation of university research structures. It is concluded that competitive funding schemes for R&D centres can have a transformative capacity, sometimes through changes not intended by public decision-makers; but the influence of the governance model, other instruments and actors are decisive in the intensity and direction of the changes.

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Author Biographies

Manuel Pereira-Puga, Instituto de Políticas y Bienes Públicos – IPP-CSIC (España)

Trabaja en el Instituto de Políticas y Bienes Públicos (IPP) del CSIC, donde investiga en el ámbito de las políticas públicas de Investigación y Desarrollo (I+D) y de educación superior universitaria, así como en el de la política social. Es Doctor en Sociología por la Universidad de A Coruña, gracias a una beca del Programa Nacional de Formación de Profesorado Universitario (FPU).

Luis Sanz-Menéndez, Instituto de Políticas y Bienes Públicos – IPP-CSIC (España)

Profesor de investigación del CSIC en el Instituto de Políticas y Bienes Públicos (IPP). Doctor por la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), ha publicado libros y más de un centenar de trabajos sobre los sistemas y políticas de ciencia, tecnología e innovación en revistas como: Research Policy, Minerva, Research Evaluation, Science and Public Policy, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Scientometrics, Regional Studies, Public Understanding of Science o PLOS One.

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Published

01-03-2022

How to Cite

Pereira-Puga, M., & Sanz-Menéndez, L. (2022). Research policies for universities: The funding of research centers in Galicia. Gestión Y Análisis De Políticas Públicas, (28), 48–70. https://doi.org/10.24965/gapp.i28.10955