R-Quest - Centre for Research Quality and Policy Impact Studies

Quality in research is a highly prioritized, but also a much debated issue in research policy. The Centre for Research Quality and Policy Impact Studies (R-Quest) constitutes an 8-year commitment to explore the nature and mechanisms of research quality. The centre will address three closely related questions: 1. What is research quality? How are notions of research quality negotiated, established and practiced, and what are the mechanisms through which these notions affect policy? 2. What are the drivers of high quality research, and what is the role of policy in developing outstanding research? 3. What are the effects of high quality research on the society? There are important gaps in research on what constitutes and fosters high quality research, and there are fundamental challenges in studying the link between research policy and research performance and social contributions. To tackle these challenges there is a need for solid data, improved research methods and a concerted long-term interdisciplinary research effort. R-QUEST gathers researchers from five countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands and UK) and form a partnership based on established relations, complementary competencies and novel combinations of micro and macro level data. Moreover, the centre provides an academic framework for recruitment to the field and finance new PhDs and postdocs dedicated to the field. Furthermore, the Centre will provide an enhanced knowledge basis for research and innovation policy and interact closely with ministries and other users throughout the 8-year period. A central aim of the centre is to understand research assessments, standards, conditions and practices in different fields of research. More generally, we aim to help policy makers in their efforts to develop the best framework conditions for high quality research.

Quality in research is a highly prioritized, but also a much debated issue in research policy. The Centre for Research Quality and Policy Impact Studies (R-Quest) constitutes an 8-year commitment to explore the nature and mechanisms of research quality. The centre will address three closely related questions: 1. What is research quality? How are notions of research quality negotiated, established and practiced, and what are the mechanisms through which these notions affect policy? 2. What are the drivers of high quality research, and what is the role of policy in developing outstanding research? 3. What are the effects of high quality research on the society? There are important gaps in research on what constitutes and fosters high quality research, and there are fundamental challenges in studying the link between research policy and research performance and social contributions. To tackle these challenges there is a need for solid data, improved research methods and a concerted long-term interdisciplinary research effort. R-Quest will gather researchers from five countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands and UK) and thus form a partnership based on established relations, complementary competencies and novel combinations of micro and macro level data. The centre will also establish an academic framework for recruitment to the field, i.a. by financing new PhDs and postdocs dedicated to future research in the field. Furthermore, the Centre will provide an enhanced knowledge basis for research and innovation policy and interact closely with ministries and other users throughout the 8-year period. A central aim is to develop policy tools for robust but flexible identification of research quality at all levels. More generally, the centre will enable policy makers at strategic and operational levels to develop framework conditions for growing and supporting outstanding research groups, environments and institutions.