Experience on research evaluation at the joint research centre of the European commission

Abstract

Since more than 10 years, the obligation to perform a research evaluation about the JRC activities is included in Council decisions on research programmes. From 1984 to 1986 eight Peer Panels reviews were performed, one for each programme, and they were followed by an overall assessment by the JRC Scientific Council. For the research programme 1988–1991, a mid-term and a final evaluations were entrusted to expert Panels for the all JRC. For the last programme, 1992–1994, a new approach was introduced by charging Visiting Groups to perform an evaluation of each JRC Institute. Internal evaluation through questionnaires and bibliometric analyses were also attempted at JRC. The merits of the various appoaches are highlighted and specific considerations are shortly discussed concerning the “control” and the “support” function of the evaluations, quantitative and qualitative assessments, distributed or centralised evaluations, single or multi-stage evaluations.