CRISs as a Management Tool: Experiences and Perspectives at the German Research Foundation (DFG)

Presented at the 8th international Conference onCurrent Research Information Systems, May 11-13th, 2006 in Bergen, Norway

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

Juergen Guedler, German Research Foundation (DFG), Department of Information Management

Topics

Introduction

Information Management at the German Research Foundation

Products related to the DFG’s CRIS

Further developments

Topics

Introduction

Information Management at the German Research Foundation

Information products related to the DFG’s CRIS

Further developments

Objectives of presentation

Main idea of CRISs: To publish information on ongoing research projects in an user-friendly searchable way.

But a well established CRIS offers more:

Management Information Base for statistical analysis Base for evaluative studies on research programmes Base for rankings

The presentation will exemplarily illustrate these possibilities for the CRISof the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Conclusions will be drawn on the special possibilities for funding agencies,that emerge from a more offensive (and ideally collaborative) use of owndata and data from partners.

The German Research Foundation

promote academic excellence on a

competitive basis

serve science and the humanities in all fields

advise parliaments and public authorities on

research questions

support the advancement and education of

young researchers

encourage international research cooperation

Who We Are

What We Do

central public funding organisation

for academic research in Germany

Third party funding income of German universities by source (1999/2000)

Facts and figures

disciplines: All research areas in science and humanities

programmes: Project funding, coordinated programmes, fellowships, prizes and infrastructure.

staff: 700 people (head office in Bonn, dependances in Berlin, Beijing, Washington, Moscow and New Delhi)

budget growth: 1985: 500 Mio €, 1995: 900 Mio €, 2005: 1.300 Mio €

New: the so-called „Excellence Initiative“ (add. budget of ~ 1.6 Billion Euro (2006-2011))

Consequences of growth I

Public interest:

Grown public interest in questions of research and research-funding as well as on the results of DFG-funded research

Accountability:

Stakeholders (funds providers and taxpayers) ask for transparency in the use of funds provided

Political advice:

demand for data as a base for political decisions (e.g. in the context of the above mentioned “Excellence“-Initiative)

Base for planning purposes:

The DFG is increasingly asked to legitimate its strategic decisions on the basis of statistical data and to offer its members (=universities) such a base for the same purpose

For these and other reasons the DFG today is asked increasingly

to inform about its own activities and the activities of funded researchers (=„research information“) and

to collect data that allow a fact-driven evaluation of these activities (=„research and funding evaluation“)

Consequences of growth II

Topics

Introduction

Information Management at the German Research Foundation

Information products related to the DFG’s CRIS

Further developments

„History“ of Data and Information Management at the DFG

Late 70ties till early 90ties: Centralized data management, slow but steadily growing data production by a single unit, based on a system of office-internal data entry forms. Use: “For statistics O N L Y”

Midst of 90ties till 2004: Decentralized data Management, fast growing data-and-documents-production by around 150 staff members within a mainfraim-based software-architecture (All-in-1). Additional use: Data-based production of letters to applicants and reviewers as well as of documentations for the deciding bodies of the DFG.

Since 2005: ElektrA – a web based tool that helps to manage all funding programmes of the DFG. Around 450 staff members are involved now.

Additional use: support of workflows and production of far more detailed information on the funding activities and procedures of the DFG.

Applicants

Reviewers

Departmentsof the DFG

rd. 20.000Persons /

year

rd. 7.000Persons /

year

more than450 people part. on data based

proposal management

sendreviews

ElektrA-DB

ask for reviews

send proposals

andreports

put information

(data & documents)in database

securequality

copy ofdata

IM

Evaluative reports / Ranking /statistics information

services

CRISs online (e.g.Inst-DB, GEPRIS)

further databased information services(e.g. WWW of DFG)

QV

Base of information services: Process produced data in ElektrA

Topics

Introduction

Information Management at the German Research Foundation

Information products related to the DFG’s CRIS

Further developments

Exemplarily information products based on the DFG’s CRIS

Management Reports

Statistics and Evaluation

GEPRIS

Research Explorer

Funding-Ranking

Management Reports

Object-orientated Link on ElektrA

Objective: To offer easy accessible inf. on the process of reviewing and funding (on the base of more than 40.000 applications yearly)

Users: Management-Staff of the DFGMode: Interactive and personalized user-interface via DFG-IntranetSize: More than 100 specialized rep. for different manag. purposesSoftware: Crystal Reports and Crystal Enterprise Server

Statistics and Evaluation

Ad-hoc statistics: More than 250 statistical request yearly (2/3 internal, 1/3 external) on funding- and research-related topics

Analysis: Detailled DFG-internal studies on the acceptance and user-profile of certain funding-programmes

Questionaires: Use of addresses within the database for online-questionaires on funding- and research related topics:

e.g. (published on www.dfg.de):

- „Publication Strategies in Transformation?“ (acceptance and use of open access publications) (2005)

- „Research and Careers - Experiences and Professional Development of Former DFG Fellowship Recipients“ (2004)

German Project Information System (GEPRIS)

GEPRIS is a derivate from the DFG‘s productive data system and offers „classical“ CRIS-services:

Abstracts on the objectives of funded projects

Classifications (e.g. research areas, funding instruments, institutions, related countries)

A broad set of search-possibilities

GEPRIS is the result of a two-step production-process:

First step: Preparation of DFG-internal data for publishing purposes (90 % of the presented data)

Second step: “Added value” by including feedback of applicants (e.g. key-words, actual addresses)

Actually, GEPRIS is „under construction“. The new system will be published next weeks!

www.dfg.de/gepris

GEPRIS – Example of a project description

project-title

head of project

project-partners

discipline

Abstract

Administrative Informations

Research Explorer – Directory of German Research Institutes

Base: DFG-internal database (ElektrA)

Scope: more than 20.000 institutes

at German universities

and research organizations

Content:- Name (german/english)

- Address

- Hierarchical information

- Disciplinary classification

- Type of facility

- WWW-Link and others

Quality-Assurance:

a.) data are productive

(e.g. db-based mailing)

b.) reg. QS-processes

by a central unit of the admin.

Research Explorer: Single Item

The DFG-“Funding-Ranking“

Idea: To give information about research activity of

German universities and other research bodies

To inform about the disciplinary research profile of these institutions and of the regions they are active

To inform about networks in science

„History“: First Ranking in 1997

(database: only DFG-funded money)

as a reaction to a demand of the ten biggest German universities (members of DFG)

Second Ranking in 2000

(new: regional aggregation of data) Third Ranking in 2003 (new: networks in science, several other indicators) Fourth Ranking (Sep. 2006) (new: more indicators, detailed inf. on research

areas)

Visitor’s Statistics: www.dfg.de (1.7.2003 to 20.6.2004)

english version: http://www.dfg.de/en/ranking/

Response to the Funding Ranking

Highly publicised in mass media large echo in the scientific community

Topics

Introduction

Information Management at the German Research Foundation

Products related to the DFG’s CRIS

Further developments

Conclusions I

Current situation with respect to the use of DFG’s CRIS-System:

Good progress with respect to quantitative and qualitative information about DFG-grants but

scarce information about the process as well as about the results and success of DFG funded research and

No working unit within or outside the DFG, which could satisfy the described needs in an appropriate way.

With respect to actors outside DFG

Low co-operation between different producers and users of research information

Large difficulty to link information from different sources due to missing standards

Absence of a central „network-point“ that offers and coordinates appropriate services

Solution

Establishment of a scientific facility, which supports the DFG and other actors involved in science policy with above described services for the purpose of programme and research planning as well as a service of information to the general public.

DFG-Foundation of the “Institute for Research Information and Quality Assurance (IFQ)” (Oct. 2005)

Examples of Future Service of the IFQ

Qualifying information (who is doing research with whom and with which results?) (= General Research Information)

Quantifying information (Input- and output-data on DFG-funded projects) (=monitoring/evaluation)

Empirical based information about process and results of DFG-funded projects (e.g. career of DFG-Fellows, Internationality and Interdisciplinarity of projects, „output“(publications, patents and others)).

E.g. establishment of an information system that publishes the final reports of DFG-funded projects.

for details see (german only): www.forschungsinfo.de

Conclusions II

I. Today most funding agencies run „CRIS“-systems

II. Most of the builders (and users) of these systems are not aware of the possibilities their systems offer for „more-than-internal“-services

III. Try to use your CRIS in more than „one way“: the more productsyou offer the better is the quality of your CRIS (the data within)!

IV. Get into contact to other CRIS-providers: Exchange Data!

V. Even more effectivness is possible – by working together(as the following presentation will show)!

Thank you for your attention!

More Infos at www.dfg.de/

Dr. Juergen Guedler, Department of Information Management, juergen.guedler@dfg.de

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

...and remember: without data you are just another person with an opinion!