Objectives of evaluation of development research
General
1. Checking the relevance for development [1] [2]of a given research. Is this research useful for:
- Improving the standard of living of the people (health, food, economy, environment...)
- contributing to remove constraints to development [3]
- helping decision-makers, persons in charge of development (governments, local authorities, NGOs, local associations, etc.)
- training development workers (at various levels)
- teaching in universities and technical schools
2. Assessing quality and contributing to maintain or improve the quality of development research [4]:
- scientific quality [5]
- organisation of research, leadership
3. Strengthening of research capacity [6]:
- individual researchers [7]
- institutions [8] (research institutes, universities)
4. Ensuring accountability towards:
- funding sources
- authorities
- the public at large ( Where is the best research? How good is it?
Objectives of evaluating research projects
1. Ex-ante evaluation of research projects [9]
See above: General
Add :
- to select eligible research projects for funding
- to allocate resources for a new research proposal : financial resources : fund raising, financing research, financing research and higher education institutions, extending previous funding, etc.
- human resources : recruitment of researchers [7]
2. Ex-post evaluation of research projects [9]
See above : General
Add : evaluation for
- deciding to publish the results of research
- deciding to extend an on-going research
- deciding to award a degree to the author
- awarding a prize or a distinction
- disseminating scientific knowledge about development and its problems
Objectives of evaluating researchers and research teams
See above : General
- individual researchers [7] :
- senior researchers
- young researchers
- research teams [8]
- to assess past performance
- to assess potential
Evaluating scientific publications
Evaluating the publications [10] in order to judge
- their scientific quality
- their clarity and completeness, useful for practical applications
- the correct choice of the publication channels, in view of possibly interested stakeholders
- their accessibility