Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

The organization and financing of research 795
A general model for the analysis of expenditure
7. With respect to sources of funds a central issue is how far they emanate from
government. The trend in all countries is for governments to provide an increasing
proportion of internally generated funds for scientific activities. Governments
may be involved in three ways:
a. as suppliers of general purpose research funds, granted through research
councils, academies of sciences and similar bodies ;
b. as suppliers of funds to the system of higher education which relays them
into research activities associated with teaching;
c. as a user-organization, through the many departments and agencies of
government which require social research. These may be at the national,
regional or local levels.
All these features require careful distinction if statistics are to be internationally
comparable.
8. ‘The private sector’ is a term without meaning in completely socialist
countries. On the other hand, the concept of the user-organization is valid for
all forms of society. Similarly, though ‘private foundations’ may not legally
exist in many countries, any interest group or user-organization which contributes
funds within its disposal for general scientific purposes is performing a
foundation-life function. A further consideration is the extent to which resources
emanate from within a particular country or from outside, which has
salient importance for the developing countries. It would seem that the functions
of resource provision remain constant, though the forms vary. Similarly, as
regards resource consumption, the functions of the three basic output mixes -
researchlteaching, research/ application and researchlservice - remain constant,
though the forms vary. It should, therefore, be possible to construct a general
model of resource allocation for the social sciences which would permit international
comparisons.
9. Within such a framework attention requires to be focused on the decisionmaking
processes prevailing among the bodies concerned. This would entail
identifying the values, needs, preferences, prejudices, priorities, etc., which
come into play when grant-giving decisions are made.
IO. One would wish to know something also about the composition of these
bodies :
a. their degrees of independence, inter-dependence and sub- and super-ordination;
b. their number, variety and relative weight;
c. their relations with their ‘consumers’ - the bodies and people who perform
research projects in the various output mixes.
Studies which would illuminate such topics are entirely feasible with present
social science knowledge and methodology. What is doubtful is how far they
would be sanctioned. Yet the value of purely fact-finding studies is limited.
The method of principal components for analyzing disciplines
I I. Much attention was given in the answers to the UNESCO questionnaire and
in the target country studies to the distribution of effort among the various