Financing Science, Evaluation of Institutions,
Career of Individuals
Barbora Kozlíková, Zdeněk Matěj
Fl MU
DŮVOD, September, 2015
european
social fund in the czech republic
EUROPEAN UNION
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, YOUTH AND SPORTS
OP Education for Competitiveness
INVESTMENTS IN EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT
Kozlíková, Matěj (Fl MU)
Finance, Evaluation, Career
DŮVOD, Autumn 2015 0/7
Financing Science
• Money for organizations (="institucionalni podpora")
a Not meant for teaching students but for doing science
• Government funding, across all scientific fields o Recipients: universities, research institutes, etc
• Grants (="ucelova podpora")
• To support smaller working groups to meet their specific goals o Recipients: research groups, individuals, e.g., post-docs
• Industry
• Private company decides whom to give money for what benefit
• Recipients: organizations or individuals
Kozlíková, Matěj (Fl MU) Finance, Evaluation, Career DUVOD, Autumn 2015 1/7
Financing Science
• Government provides the greatest deal of money
• Most of it goes directly to organizations, less via grant agencies
• Grant agencies govern annual competitions for money
• http://www.vyzkum.cz/FrontCIanek.aspx?idsekce=609
• Problems with direct financing:
• Need for a fair share of the budget
• Attempt to evaluate organizations and give money accordingly o Research in different fields costs differently
• Rules change from year to year
Kozlíková, Matěj (Fl MU)
Finance, Evaluation, Career
DUVOD, Autumn 2015 2/7
Evaluating Science
• Government passes money directly to organization as a whole
• Organization needs to decide how to pass money further into its subunits
• Often, the evaluation results are re-used
o Evaluation is mainly focused on publication activity
• How institutions are evaluated, and results:
• http://www.vyzkum.cz/FrontCIanek.aspx?idsekce=187 48
• Organizations must manage reports of their results (IS, RIV)
• Organizations tend to optimize
o In CR: Evaluation happens every year based on RIV
Kozlíková, Matěj (Fl MU)
Finance, Evaluation, Career
DUVOD, Autumn 2015 3/7
Financing Science: Grants
• Fixed budget given for fixed period of time, for specified research tasks
o Researchers specify that in grant applications, and compete for money
• With grant you can improve your income, buy stuff you need, improve working environment, etc.
• However, the acceptance ratio of grant proposals is usually low
(<25%)
• Grants are often granted to individuals (SomoPro, ERC grants) or teams (GACR)
• https://www.fi.muni. cz/research/index.xhtml.cs
• European Union grants, EU H2020 (http://www.n2020.cz/), etc.
Kozlíková, Matěj (Fl MU)
Finance, Evaluation, Career
DUVOD, Autumn 2015 4/7
Financing Science: Grants
• With grant you are often obliged for certain acts, e.g.:
• Propagation of the grant agency
o Promotion of the results, availability of the results (SW licenses)
• Sustainability of the granted processed (e.g., DUVOD)
• Lots of administration and "proofs" (e.g., photos)
Kozlíková, Matěj (Fl MU)
Finance, Evaluation, Career
DUVOD, Autumn 2015 5/7
Financing Science: Grants
• Applications should...
• be submitted right on time (deadlines),
• be submitted to appropriate agency and panel,
• be formally okay (and good looking),
• be clearly formulated in terms of goals and actions to take,
• contain reasonably ambitious goals,
• take into account duties from the grant agency (e.g., promotion costs).
• Experience (and little bit of luck) is a big advantage
• Knowledge of evaluation processes is also a big advantage
Kozlíková, Matěj (Fl MU)
Finance, Evaluation, Career
DUVOD, Autumn 2015 6/7
Scientific Career
• It varies country from country, especially at later stages
o More or less standard progress is:
9 3-6 years PhD student
• cca 28 years old
• 3-6 years Post-Doc position
• cca 35 years old
« up to 8 years on tenure track / assistant professor
• cca 40 years old
• habilitation    associate professor
• after Post-Doc: look for your own lab
• some time later: become a full professor
Kozlíková, Matěj (Fl MU)
Finance, Evaluation, Career
DUVOD, Autumn 2015 7/7