France, the guarantor model and the institutionalisation of evaluation

Abstract

The French evaluation scene highlights a particular configuration — the guarantor model. Historically, evaluation has played a major role in the recruitment and careers of researchers, and, since the 1960s, advisory committees have been responsible for evaluating the French R&D situation and policy. At the beginning of the 1980s two independent bodies — CNE and CNER — were given the responsibility of systematically and periodically evaluating all French research operators — research institutions, national programmes and agencies, universities, and ‘procedures’ (such as the research tax credit). The review of their first years of experience highlights three lessons: they were able to produce credible evaluations (a key issue for such exercises), they have had significant effects, both direct and indirect, on research operators, but the question of the uptake of their results at the policy level remains open. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.