Monitoring and Evaluation
Keeping research funding on solid footing through monitoring and evaluation: Partial view of Hans Scheib's Phaeton sculpture at the DFG Head Office in Bonn.
© E. Lichtenscheid
© E. Lichtenscheid
The DFG has established a reporting system that allows regular monitoring and analysis of its funding activities. The DFG Funding Ranking, which is geared primarily to DFG member universities, provides comprehensive information on the subject and topic priorities of individual locations and regions. Helpful tools for the DFG’s internal monitoring are periodic interviews conducted with spokespersones of Collaborative Research Centres and Research Training Groups, on topics such as the promotion of young researchers, gender equality, and international collaboration. Some studies examine individual funding instruments in order to evaluate programmes, while others look at certain issues across programmes, e.g. by analysing DFG funding data in terms of gender equality.
A key principle of these activities is transparency. Consequently, the DFG publishes not only the actual studies but also summaries in the form of DFG Infobriefs as well as its statements on the studies. The studies are done jointly with institutes that specialise in monitoring and evaluating research and its funding. One important partner is the Institute for Research Information and Quality Assurance (iFQ) in Bonn, which is funded by the DFG as a central research facility. Information on its studies and monitoring projects can be found on the iFQ's website listed below.
