With the Clinical Trials programme, the German Research Foundation (DFG) has been funding the implementation of clinical trials since 2013, regardless of the topic and for a limited period of time. The aim of the funding is to provide proof of efficacy for a therapeutic, diagnostic or prognostic procedure. The DFG commissioned inspire research to evaluate the programme. The evaluation focuses on four areas: 1) appropriateness of the proposal evaluation & selection process, 2) opportunities and risks during the study, 3) assessment of study results & impacts and 4) needs of the community and structural framework conditions, which are systematically analysed empirically for the further development of the DFG funding programme.
Since 2022, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has been trialling an interactive online review process, known as the Peer Circle process, for the external assessment of applications in the selection procedure for Humboldt Research Fellowships. This pilot process was subject to an accompanying evaluation during its first year. Based on the positive evaluation results, the Foundation’s Board decided to continue and gradually expand the Peer Circle process. The Humboldt Foundation commissioned inspire research to conduct a follow-up evaluation in order to draw additional empirically grounded conclusions regarding the validity, reliability, robustness and transparency of the Peer Circle process. As data and information on the process and its effects are now available over several years, the follow-up evaluation focuses on questions for which no reliable conclusions could yet be drawn in 2022 due to the small number of cases. In addition, the hypotheses in the 2022 evaluation report regarding the added value of the Peer Circle process are to be critically reviewed.
The foundation “Innovationsstiftung für Bildung (ISB)” was established in 2017 by federal law with the aim of helping to raise educational standards and innovation skills across all age groups. To achieve its goals the foundation funds competitive, quality-assured innovative projects in the fields of education and research, stimulates networking among innovative schools and school management teams, and collaborates with private educational foundations. The aim of the evaluation is to systematically analyse the ISB in terms of the appropriateness, cost-effectiveness and impact of the use of public funds, complementing a report by the Austrian National Audit Office, and to provide a sound basis for decision-making regarding the further development of the foundation’s legal and organisational framework.
Since the early 2020s, calls for proposals in the mobility and ICT thematic areas issued by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) have included a requirement for funded projects to draw up a Data Management Plan (DMP). In cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (Fraunhofer ISI), inspire research evaluated the benefits of this requirement for projects and funded organisations. The results show that current practice only leads, in isolated cases, to improved data management within projects or to data being reused more frequently after the end of the research project. The grant recipients surveyed as part of the evaluation predominantly stated that the DMP had no significant benefit for the project or the organisation. A key reason for this is that the FFG is attempting to address several very different objectives with the DMP as a tool.
Link to final report