Topics of social relevance in research project funding instruments: evidences from European countries

This paper explores, using existing recent data collected at European level on government R&D funding, the portfolio of project funding instruments managed by the Research Funding Organisations (RFOs) in different European countries to understand how far they are targeted toward addressing problems of social relevance-those close to solving problems affecting citizens and society. Following Nightingale and Scott (2007), we assume that the actual capability of project funding instruments to implement issues of social relevance is mainly related to the way in which the aims and objectives are put into actions by the managing RFOs through criteria used in the selection processes, and the composition of the selection panel. We explore whether instruments with targeted objectives toward topics of social relevance may be implemented in a flexible way when the selection is driven by criteria that do not score high the capability of the proposals to address problems of social relevance and do not involve nonacademic experts in the selection panels. Conversely, project funding instruments not oriented toward social relevant objectives can be implemented in a way that score high the presence of topics of social relevance in research proposals, by including also the participation of experts in the panels.