Public sector consultancy
The Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy was established as a governmental research agency under the auspices of the Ministry for Research in 1997, but was in 2004 merged into Aarhus University. The Centre has continued to provide research-based evidence and advice to public sector organisations, including research councils, ministries, parliaments, and supranational institutions such as the European Union. Increasingly, evaluations and analyses of research activities and their impact are also commissioned by organisations in the private sector, including non-profit research foundations.
A selection of recent commissioned studies carried out by the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy is listed below. For more information about the centre’s services to public and private sector organisations, please contact centre director Carter Bloch or associate professor Ebbe Krogh Graversen.
Research funding evaluation
CFA Evaluation of Innovation Centre Denmark
Innovation Centre Denmark (ICDK) is a cooperation between the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark with seven centres located in different parts of the world. CFA has conducted a study on behalf of the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science to examine how the innovation centres work and how their activities can be measured. The study seeks to build a value-creation model that captures ICDK’s innovation activities and how they seek to create value through innovative partnerships.
Project period: 2023
Evaluation of EUopSTART
The Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy has performed an effect evaluation of the EUopSTART program for EFI. EUopSTART provides grants for Danish companies and knowledge institutions' preparatory work to prepare applications for a number of EU research programmes. The purpose of EUopSTART is to intensify the participation of Danish research institutions and companies in European research and innovation.
Project period: 2021
DFIR Finance of Danish Research – The distribution of competitive research funds in areas and topics
On behalf of the Danish Council for Research and Innovation Policy, the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Policy Research has carried out a study of the dispersion of research funds and grants between different fields of study. The project consists of two analyses. The aim of the first analysis is to map the distribution of funds and grants between different fields of study in the wider Danish financing system. The second analysis focuses more narrowly on health research.
Project participants: Emil Bargmann Madsen, Kaare Aagaard, Jesper W. Schneider and Jens Peter Andersen
Project period: 2019
DEA Competitive funding
On behalf of DEA, CFA carries out a study of research funding with a specific emphasis on the balance between concentration and diversity. Based on a literature review and a theoretical discussion of competition in science the study will empirically examine the concentration of external research funding at the level of individual/research groups as well as at the level of fields and specialties. The project aims to improve our general knowledge of the consequences of increased use of competitive funding mechanisms. From this outset the project will initiate and inform both general and specific science policy discussions regarding funding mechanisms and priority setting.
Project leader: Kaare Aagaard
Project participants: Jesper W. Schneider, Carter Bloch, Jens Peter Andersen, Alexander Kladakis
Project period: 2019
Annual Impact Assesment Report of Novo Nordisk Foundation Funded Research
On behalf of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy conducted an analysis of research funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The analysis consisted among other things of a bibliometric analysis.
Project period: 2017
Research mapping and networks
CFA analysis of DNFR Centers of Excellence
The Danish Center for Studies in Research and Research Policy (CFA) has conducted a retrospective analysis of the early Centers of Excellences from the National Danish Research Foundation (DNRF).
The purpose of the analysis is to analyze: 1) what elements of the CoE framework were effective in promoting excellence in research and why, 2) the impact of the CoE on the involved re-searchers, institutions, and society, and 3) potentials and challenges for the DNRF CoE as seen by involved researchers and institutions.
Project participants: Emil D. Alnor, Jesper W. Schneider, and Lise Degn
Project period: 2023
Evaluation of Research and Technology Organizations
In collaboration with the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science (UFS), CFA carries out evaluations of the seven Approved Research and Technological Organizations (GTS) in Denmark.
The purpose of the evaluations is to strengthen UFS’s knowledge of the individual institute's strengths, challenges, and potentials for an effective effort to accelerate business’ use of new knowledge and technology.
Project period: 2022-2023
DFIR Danish Wind Ecosystem
Using the wind energy sector in Denmark as a success case, this study investigates dynamics and systemic conditions, such as the sector ecosystem of test and research facilities, and the role of regulatory and institutional framework conditions, that have been driving technological innovation within the sector in order to draw lessons that can be transferred to new and emerging green technology areas.
Project period: 2022
Literature review on effects of Research and Technology Organizations (RTO)
CFA has performed the literature review, which will provide SIU with a better knowledge base about RTO's significance for companies and knowledge institutions in order to support SIU's further development and management of the Danish GTS institutes.
Project period: 2020-2021
Mapping of research litterature for inspection by public leadership educations (KaFEOL)
CFA has performed three reviews of existing research literature within ‘Research in effect and effect measurement of public management education’, ‘Research in the meaning of ways to exercise public management’ and ‘Research in the meaning of framework for development and further training of public leaders’. The purpose of the surveys is to establish an easily accessible overview of the important research articles and publications that shed light on the importance of different ways of organizing, developing and organizing public management education.
Project period: 2020
Career tracking of recipients of PhD and postdoc scholarships from the Lundbeck and Novo Nordisk Foundations
On behalf of Novo Nordisk Foundation and Lundbeck Foundation, the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy conducted a range of analyses of PhDs and postdocs that received grants from the two foundations.
Project period: 2019
Competitive Research Funds: Concentration of means in theory and practice, and Concentration and Dispersion Review
On behalf of DEA, the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy conducted a project with a generel focus on research funds subject to competition. The project also brings a more narrow perspective on the balance between concentration and diversity. The main purpose of the project is: (1) To improve the generel knowledge on the use of the subject-to-competition-instrument and (2) to initiate and inform both generel and more specific research policy orientated discussions about means and priorities.
Project leader: Kaare Aagaard
Project participants: Jesper W. Schneider, Carter Bloch, Jens Peter Andersen and Alexander Kladakis
Project period: 2017-2018
Greenland Research Activities and Actors
Analysis of research activities and research participants in Greenland:
The purpose of the analysis is to create an overview of:
- Research participants (e.g. researchers, research institutes and other authorities) operating in Greenland.
- Where these participants are operating in Greenland.
- Within which primary fields of study research is conducted.
- The average number of days researcher participants spend in Greenland annually, and
- National and international research collaborators in Greenland.
Project leader: Ebbe K. Graversen
Project participant: Asger Dalsgaard Pedersen
Project period: 2017-2018
Evaluation of the Institutes of Social Science
On behalf of the Norwegian Research Council, the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy in corporation with Technopolis Group conducted an evaluation of 22 Institutes of Social Science in Norway. The Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy was especially involved with a bibliometric analysis.
Project period: 2016
Internationalisation highlighted through a "career trace analysis" of researchers who have received elite grants
On behalf of the Independent Research Fund Denmark, the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy conducted a career trace analysis. The aim of the analysis was to map the career paths of a group of researchers that received a range of elite grants.
Project leader: Jesper W. Schneider
Project period: 2016
Mapping of Danish Neuro Research
The aim of this project is to provide a foundation for developing and launching new initiatives to stimulate Danish brain research.
Project leader: Jesper W. Schneider
Project period: 2016
Evaluation of International Network Programme
Evaluation of research funding instrument 'Internationalt Netværksprogram' [International Network Programme], including interviews with key stakeholders and grant recipients, survey of grant recipients, and biblometric analysis of publication output from grant recipients and PIs of rejected proposals.
Project leader: Ebbe K. Graversen
Project participants: Evanthia K. Schmidt, Carter Bloch, Thomas Ryan, Andreas Kjær, Niels Mejlgaard
Project period: 2015-2016
Innovation research 2014: Renewal of manufacturing Critical Competences for Value Creation in the Danish and Finnish Manufacturing
The object of the project is to carry out a qualitative and quantitative analysis of critical innovation competences that are necessary for advanced manufacturing firms to compete in a changing economy. The project is focused around case studies and a comparison between Denmark and Finland.
Project period: 2015
Bibliometric analysis of Region Hovedstaden's research publications
On behalf of Region Hovedstaden, the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy conducted an bibliometric analysis of Region Hovedstaden's research publications in 2014. The analysis differentiated between several organisational levels and moreover between different fields of study.
Project period: 2014-2016
Collaboration, higher education and careers
PhD Graduate Employment Survey 2019-2023
The Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy, CFA, annually conducts Aarhus University's employment survey for PhD graduates in the years 2019-2023. Every year a report is published in English.
Project leader: Ebbe K. Graversen
Period: 2021-2023
Co-Location
Based on Aarhus University, three main cases and a number of subcases are selected for a pilot study of co-location activities (Kathrinebjerg, Aarhus Food Park, ISA as main cases). The pilot study collect information about the scope, nature and variety of knowledge transfer projects via co-location. The pilot study examines the advantages and disadvantages, opportunities and pitfalls for co-location projects, as the parties involved experience them.
Project leader: Mads P. Sørensen
Project participants: Allan Rye Lund, Thomas Kjeldager Ryan, Carter Bloch
Publication date: January 2019
