Consequences of the new actorhood of german universities and research organisations: Intended and unintended effects on research

Abstract

The modes of competition in the German science system are changing; this is the result of increases in third-party research funding in general, the growing importance of Coordinated Large Research Programmes and, especially, the Excellence Initiative and the Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation. The public basic funding of academic research is increasingly being replaced by the competitive awarding of funds through the German Länder and by formula- and indicator-based allocation of funds between and within universities. As New Public Management ideas have been applied to the sciences system, the decision-making authorities responsible for setting research priorities and allocating resources have been more and more centralised at the top level of research organisations. The degree of hierarchical steering in research organisations is reflected in the growing competencies of university presidents and faculty heads. Concerning the management of non-university research institutions, comparable trends can also be observed. The central organisations are being strengthened, as can be seen at the Leibniz Association and the Helmholtz Association. The central organisations of both have gained influence on the research directions of their institutes. This influence is made possible by evaluations, the allocation of the funds from the Joint Initiative, and, at Leibniz, the possibility to exclude institutes from the Association and from funding by the State and the Länder. Our contribution deals with the question of how the changes in the type and level of competition and the transformation of universities and research organisations into competitive actors influence research that still has to be conducted by individual researchers and research teams. In particular, we will present data on the change of governance patterns at the micro level of research with respect to traced research lines and the choice of research partners. This analysis is based on a panel study of German research groups from three disciplines, astrophysics, nanotechnology, and economics. Comparable data on governance structure, collaboration networks, available resources and performance of the groups were collected in 2004, 2006/2007, and 2009. This allows us to assess the effects of the new governance mechanisms on research related decisions (e.g. orientation towards “third mission”, performance-based allocation systems, or organisations’ research priorities) which can in turn be related to the specialisation strategies and performance profiles of research groups. In particular, we focus on potential unintended effects of new governance patterns and trade-offs. First analyses indicate that an orientation towards third-party funding criteria and towards organisational profiles both have negative effects on the ability to pursue unconventional research ideas. Moreover, our analyses indicate a trade-off between scientific outputs and the new requirements on universities and research institutions to take responsibility for a “Third Mission”, i.e., to transfer technology towards industry.