MANAGING THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY

THE CHALLENGES OF RESEARCH

MANAGEMENT

EUA WorkshopBarcelona, 18-19 June 2004

Luc WEBER,University of Geneva

Member of the EUA Board

A VERY WARM WELCOME TO ALL OF YOU

318-19 June 2003 Weber, The Challenges of Research Management

ORGANISER OF THE WORKSHOP

Organiser: EUA What is EUA? What is the mission of EUA? How is EUA serving its members?

• Contributing to and influencing the policy debate in Europe (EHEA, ERA, GATS…)– Preparation in conventions, conferences, working groups,

Board and Council meetings– Drafting and publication of declarations (Salamanca, Graz,

Glasgow) and statements, as well as speeches by Board and Council members at various meetings

• Mobilizing and serving the members– Institutional evaluation of Universities; creation of quality

circles– Seminars for new elected rectors– Research projects on the mapping of social sciences,

doctoral programmes, financing research…

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AIMS OF THE WORKSHOP

Recent developments: the role of Universities and the crucial importance of research are recognized European Council: Lisbon and Barcelona objectives (competitiveness and

the 3% target) EU Commission: from the Communication “Towards a ERA” (2000) to the

Communication on “The Role of Universities” (2003) and the Liège conference

Bologna Process: introduction of the 3rd cycle (PhD) European Research Council – reactions from EURAB, ESF, EUA and the

research community Forthcoming initiative to reinforce regional development (Universities as a

factor of regional development/innovation) Increasing differentiation of HE institutions: the traditional distinction

between universities and professional HE institutions is going to be replaced by a distinction between the “intensity” of (basic) research and the dedication to teaching at Bachelor level.

518-19 June 2003 Weber, The Challenges of Research Management

AIMS OF THE WORKSHOP (2)

Challenges for research Universities: to respond to new developments and improve their research capacity and competitiveness

But HOW? Obviously, more money (better researchers, buildings, equipment,

etc..), better teacher/student ratios, ….. would greatly help! However, whether this dream comes true or not, there is a more

fundamental question: HOW CAN A UNIVERSITY (BETTER) MANAGE ITS RESEARCH?

EUA Initiative as a service to its members Organize two workshops to respond to these questions Programme outline by Bernadette Conraths, Senior Adviser to EUA,

and Inge Knudsen (EUA staff), See Programme

MANAGEMENT OF RESEARCH AND

FINANCING RESEARCHA few preliminary

comments

718-19 June 2003 Weber, The Challenges of Research Management

MANAGEMENT OF RESEARCH

The fundamental question: can we improve the research performance by better management at institutional level?The response is not straightforward: Examples of excellent research universities where research

management is strongly decentralized (Cambridge, Harvard, ETHZ, Geneva)

Research competence is massively at the base of the hierarchical pyramid!

The well established subsidiarity principle (the researchers are best placed to know what to do and to make it possible (search for the necessary funding))

Researchers want to be recognized individually Researchers do not like to be “patronized” by or even be

accountable to their institution

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MANAGEMENT OF RESEARCH (2)

However, there are good arguments in favour of managing research (implementing a research policy) at the institution level Not all researcher are “geniuses” “Geniuses” are not necessarily good entrepreneurs and negotiators Universities are not all “top class” and should therefore develop

specific research targets (for ex. to serve their community…..) More and more research is more efficiently done if the scale of the

project is important (obviously CERN, ESO/ESA, some social science projects, but also smaller initiatives)

The cost of research and of attracting good researchers is increasing rapidly; it is impossible to do everything: priorities and posteriorities must be fixed to avoid a general fall into mediocrity

The research leaders themselves would appreciate to be supported in matters of funding, transfer of knowledge (IPR, patents), recruitment of good researchers, etc…

……….

918-19 June 2003 Weber, The Challenges of Research Management

MANAGEMENT OF RESEARCH (3)

How to proceed (two levels): Strategic: Universities should develop long term

strategic plans and set out their priorities and posteriorities in research and teaching, including collaboration with other institutions

• Strategic plans must be established on the basis of broad consultations and be implemented as far as possible by means of financial incentives (should not be imposed!)

• Flexibility must be secured to support new and unforeseen priorities or interesting projects

1018-19 June 2003 Weber, The Challenges of Research Management

MANAGEMENT OF RESEARCH (4)

Managerial: Universities should develop a set of services to support research at department level, for example:

• A recruitment policy strictly based on merit• Merit reward schemes (salaries, staff, equipments)• Fund raising activity• Partnership search• A rigorous system of quality audit (assurance), possibly with

financial consequences (rewards and penalties)• Promotion of inter-disciplinarity• Promotion of the University image nationally and

internationally• Legal advice in matters concerning IPR, patents, research

contracts• And many other services to identify in this workshop…

………….. Remark: implementing a voluntary research policy is easier in

young universities than in well established ones, because there is little memory of a past characterized by almost total freedom and there are fewer people to “move”.

1118-19 June 2003 Weber, The Challenges of Research Management

FINANCIAL QUESTIONS: COSTING

Costing of research: two problems Overhead: research is more expensive than what appears at first

sight because of the importance of indirect costs:• Solution: charge significant overheads (not 10-15%, but 50-

60%!?) (when applicable)• Question: how to share this additional income between the

departments, the university, as well as those disciplines which do not (cannot) engage in contract research?

Full costs or marginal costs? • Funding of research (research councils, FP) is based on marginal

costs • It is assumed that the infrastructure and the necessary staff are

available! This means that the best way for a university to get into financial trouble is to compete aggressively for these funds!

• Therefore, to be sustainable, funding of research should be calculated on the basis of total costs

………….

1218-19 June 2003 Weber, The Challenges of Research Management

FINANCIAL QUESTIONS: FINANCING

Due to the increasing recognition of the importance of research, additional funds will (hopefully) be available, provided one goes (or lobbies) for them: National funding formulas for universities should also cover the

research effort, European universities should dramatically increase their

fundraising efforts (creation of service?) The creation of a future ERC as well as the new European

regional policy will bring fresh money, but increase competition Improve exploitation of IPR (however, the US experience shows

that it is not an important source of additional funding) Tuition fees to improve the teacher/student ratios (but not to

cross-subsidize research as in the US!) ……….

I HOPE WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A FRUITFULL WORKSHOP AND

THAT YOU WILL BENEFIT FROM IT