Research and Innovation Strategy of Slovenia 2011-2020

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educed their R&D departments. Increased public expenditures devoted to R&D in theearly nineties compensated for the business sector’s reductions in R&D investment andmaintained a high level of scientific development. Due to the shift of R&D from thebusiness to public research sector, the focus has shifted towards basic research. Despitean upturn in investment in R&D in the business sector in recent years, its cooperationwith the public sector remained at a fairly low level.As a result, the Slovenian public research sector is characterised by small differences inthe types of R&D activities in higher education and public research institutions (PRI).Thus the degree of cooperation between public research institutions and the users inSlovenia is only slightly higher than in the higher education sector. In 2008, thecontribution of Slovenia’s business sector in the budget of the higher education sectorwas 10.1% versus 12.7% in that of public research institutes. This leads to duplication ofcontent, poor cooperation among the researchers from various institutions and thefragmentation of R&D realm.On the other hand, PROs cannot properly adapt to global processes for their strategicdevelopment, as this is prevented by the current system of funding research groups. Thecentre of decision-making on development occurs at the level of a basic research cell, i.e.a programme group, and not at the level of the individual institution that would fullymanage its operation. According to the OECD test methodology, in Slovenia the share ofinstitutional funding in the overall public funds of PROs is 22.2%, which is the lowestshare among the 13 countries covered in the OECD study. The current administrativesituation of researchers in PROs according laws governing the system of civil servantsand the salary system in the public sector does not allow for the development ofexcellence in the R&D system.The possibility of employing researchers outside the administrative status of civilservants would attract top-level experts (also foreign) to institutions and motivate themusing methods characteristic of industry, thereby enabling the institution to meet itsdevelopment objectives more easily. At the same time, this would eliminate anomaliesthe system brings to a particular group of scientists without considering different, sectordependentcircumstances.For monitoring high-level research, data on the number of publications, number ofcitations, number of highly cited publications, the impact factor and number of patentapplications to certain patent offices is typically used. In the period 2004-2008, Sloveniaproduced 5,840 publications per million inhabitants in journals indexed in the ISIbibliographic databases, ranking it 7 th regarding publications in that period in the EU,which accounts for 155% of the EU average. Regarding number of citations per millioninhabitants in the same period, Slovenia holds the 13 th position between EU countrieswith 18,062 citations per million inhabitants reaching 95% of the EU average. Regardingthe impact factor, i.e. the average number of citations per publication, Slovenia is placedin 22 nd position among EU countries, with IF 3.09 and 61% of the EU average, whichshows that Slovenian authors attract relatively poor attention. With 62 highly citedpublications per million inhabitants in the period 1998–2008, Slovenia reached 151% ofthe EU average and the 13 th place in the EU.ObjectivesThe objective is to increase autonomy and responsibility of PROs, which according totheir mission contribute significantly to building a successful research and innovationsystem. On the one hand, results of PROs will make a contribution to the basic progressof science and technology, and, on the other hand, to the development of society and theeconomy. Three factors are therefore required:1. Increased international visibility and competitiveness of Slovenian science on aEuropean and global scaleEncouragement of basic research will follow the efficient European Research Council(ERC) model, with special emphasis on establishing a comparable European system ofevaluating the applications and results of research.2. Differentiation of the mission and the role of the higher education sector and institutes
In the process of diversification PROs will define their own mission and strategy, buildingon the development of areas and activities where they are or might be particularlysuccessful. All PROs will develop basic knowledge and cooperation with users; however,research institutes will focus more strongly on such cooperation than universities.Smaller research institutes which are almost exclusively funded by public resources willbe joined or integrated with the universities based on an in-depth discussion with thestakeholders.3. Establishing an evaluation system of PROs’ research activitiesIn order to establish adequate monitoring of research and innovation system functioning,efficient institutional evaluation is needed that takes into account a wide range ofmeasures in establishing definitive findings. The essence of institutional evaluation is anindependent external evaluation (foreign and national reviewers), which is not basedexclusively on quantitative data. The evaluation system will be developed by the agenciesresponsible for research and technological development in cooperation with thecompetent ministries and other stakeholders. Evaluation criteria will be based on theevaluation of results and impact in scientific fields. One set of criteria (number ofpublications with high impact factor, citations, research work growth index, cooperationamong PROs, etc.) will be aimed at measuring the scientific excellence of the institutionand international visibility of the basic research work. Another set of criteria will addresscooperation with the users and measuring social relevance of the research work. Inaccordance with the mission, the latter will be more prominent in the evaluation ofresearch institutes and will, among other things, take into account revenues fromlicensing, number of patents in patent offices performing a complete test, number ofspin-off projects from the PRO and applicative success of the PRO (cooperation with thebusiness sector or projects between PROs and users, recruitment of students, juniorresearchers and researchers in the development departments in the companies, thepercentage of research taking place in the priority areas of Slovenian TechnologyPlatforms, the percentage of research to support projects of social interest, and others).4. Autonomy and responsibility of PROs to enable their strategic development inaccordance with national prioritiesWith gradually increasing institutional funding due to reduced/terminated programmefunding, we will ensure greater autonomy and responsibility in preparing the strategy forhuman resources management and development/programme strategy to PROs. R&Dactivity has to take place within a partnership in which a PRO assumes responsibility forthe employees and for different social environments, i.e. all its system components andfor society as a whole.Institutional funding of R&D activity of the higher education sector and institutes will beharmonised and will include two pillars: one fundamental, the other development. Thefundamental pillar will provide stable funding of R&D activity of PROs, and thedevelopment pillar will provide additional funding depending on fulfilment of the missionof institutions and achievement of preset objectives and will be based on the results ofthe evaluation of PROs.A modified method of funding PROs will allow the achievement of objectives of the RISSwhile respecting their autonomy to organise their own institutional strategies and ways inwhich to fulfil the set objectives. Public funding mechanisms will be designed to allowmore independent decision-making by PROs on use and integrated management ofresources earmarked for institutional funding.In addition to the transition to institutional funding of institutions regarding stablefunding, the existing project funding of research work through the "research hour" unitwill be replaced by (co)funding the actual costs of projects.Institutions will gain greater autonomy in recruiting and managing human resources,since researchers of a particular institution will be able to withdraw from the salarysystem due to the agreement between those involved. We expect and we wish that themanagement and employees of research institutions will make a common proposal as tohow to regulate the salary system and the rights and duties of the employees, with one
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