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Enhancing reciprocity in international cooperation in research: issues and metrics
by Mark Matthews & Paul Harris
This paper has been prepared as part of a set of inter-connected projects that aim to raise awareness amongst European-based researchers of the funding opportunities that support collaboration with colleagues in a range of non-European nations. The paper highlights key policy trade-offs between competition and cooperation in international research cooperation. This is a tension of particular relevance to support for public interest-oriented scientific research (which is inherently international in its ethos) versus support for innovation - which has a strong national competitiveness dimension and is hence less amenable to international cooperation. Consequently, recent trends to closely couple science policy and innovation policy have complicated the policy agenda as regards support for international cooperation. Within this context, the paper draws attention to the growing importance of openness and reciprocity considerations in national policy framework and research funding arrangements. Finally, it proposes a methodology for calculating the proportion of a nation’s domestic research funding portfolio that is open to applications from overseas researchers (referred to as the ‘Three C’s method’). This comprises: capacity: the quantum of funding available (converted to €); commitment: the extent to which a funding mechanism allows for international access (measured on the scale C1 0 < x < 1.0), and; clarity: the extent to which guidelines are easily grasped by an international researcher in a timely manner (measured on the scale C2 0 < x < 1.0). Capacity (€ AVAILABLE), commitment (C1) and clarity (C2) are related in the following simple equation: €OPEN = € AVAILABLE x C1 x C2. This method has the potential to provide an evidence-base that would allow the relative openness of different nations’ policy stances and funding arrangements to be assessed.
