The Board of Governors has approved an initiative to subject all research domains in which the faculties of Arts and Philosophy, Faculty of Law and Criminology, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences and the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences are active to a discipline-specific assessment by an external peer review panel, including a site visit. This will be spread over the academic years 2010 to 2015.

The principal objective of this discipline-specific evaluation exercise is to improve the quality of
scientific research.

• Quality assurance in research may provide a vital stimulus for intra-university collaboration, as the researchers involved become better acquainted with each other and each other’s research.
• Quality assurance in research also leads to an exchange of best practices for the organization of research and research groups.
• Quality assurance in research is furthermore not a one-way exercise: during consecutive discussions feedback will be given on the current research policy.

In response to the research assessment exercise, the university policy in general and the research policy in particular, may be adjusted where appropriate. The results of the discipline-specific evaluation exercise will receive follow-up within the current research policy, as required by the government. The results will encourage an active support of strong research groups and innovative (young) researchers, for example, through the allocation of research funding. As the parameters used in the Flemish funding model for higher education are also applicable in the 2 institutional allocation model (distribution of resources across faculties), it becomes even more important for policy makers in the faculty to fully support and improve the quality of research.

Rather than being intent to penalize, the evaluation exercise is to be regarded as a guiding principle, a means of positioning oneself/one’s team in the research system. The reference period is a time interval of 8 years preceding the evaluation. The results and recommendations will be acted upon by the faculty and submitted to the relevant working group of the Research Council. The latter may give feedback to the full board of the Research Council.

Contact

Research Department - Policy and Quality Control Unit
Annik Leyman