Re-Structuring Higher Education and Scientific Innovation (RHESI): The consequences of changes in authority relations for the direction and organisation of research

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Uwe Schimank
• Subject Area: Education Systems and Educational Institutions
• Term: from 2009 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 134942651

The aim of this project is to find out how the changing governance of public science Systems and higher education Systems are altering key features of scientific innovation, particularly the selection of research goals and the evaluation and integration of results. Changes in the authority relationships governing the selection of scientific problems and assessment of results are the central channels through which the various policy initiatives and governance reforms affect the production of scientific knowledge. The trends described above have changed these authority relations by increasing both the variety of authoritative agencies involved, such as European agencies, state ministries of science and technology, research funding councils, charities, industrial enterprises and public research organisations, and their capacity and willingness to steer research strategies and knowledge development. We will study the consequences of these changes for intellectual innovation and the dynamics of scientific knowledge in different academic Systems by means of a comparative analysis of how funding and governance reforms in different countries are changing authority relations in scientific fields.The central objectives of this CRP are:1. To find out how different university reforms in Europe are affecting patterns of resource allocation, performance evaluation and employment practices in universities and other public research organisations;2. To analize how changes in these are affecting the relative authority of the state, European agencies, university managers, scientific elites, funding agencies and private companies over the direction and Organisation of research in different European university Systems,3. To ascertain the particular ways in which such shifts in authority relations are influencing: a) the development of intellectual innovations in different sciences, b) the creation of new scientific fields for intellectual and public policy purposes and, c) the integration of research goals and results by intellectual elites across universities and countries.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom
• Participating Persons: Professor Dietmar Braun; Professor Dr. Jürgen Enders; Professor Dr. Lars Engwall; Professor Richard Whitley