Braun Tibor, Schubert András (szerk.): Szakértői bírálat (peer review) a tudományos kutatásban : Válogatott tanulmányok a téma szakirodalmából (A MTAK Informatikai És Tudományelemzési Sorozata 7., 1993)
EUGENE GARFIELD: Refereeing and Peer Review. Part 3. How the Peer Review of Research-Grant Proposals Works and What Scientists Say About It
28 GARFIELD: REFEREEING AND PEER REVIEW, PART 1 ilar to the NSF's, in that Navy scientists may evaluate proposals themselves or have them reviewed through the mail or by a panel of experts convened for the purpose. 1 8 Naval officers have much more to say in the decision-making process, however, than do their counterparts at the NSF or the NIH. Peer Review Outside the US The peer-review systems of the UK, France, and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) provide a perspective on complaints about the US system and point the way toward possible improvements. In the UK, according to a two-volume compendium of source materials researched and published by the NSF, general support for all university programs and operations is provided through a dual system. 2 1 The first element, the University Grants Committee (UGC), provides general support for all functions of British universities in the form of annual block grants; about a quarter of this money goes to the direct support of research. Although there is general agreement between the universities and the UGC on how this money should be spent, the universities have wide latitude in the use of these grants. On rare occasions, however, the UGC makes a grant for a specific purpose and suggests the most effective use for the funds. The second element of the UK system is provided in the form of research grants for specific university activities. These monies are administered by the five publicly funded research councils —the Science and Engineering Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the Natural Environment Research Council, the Agricultural Research Council, and the Economic and Social Sciences Research Council. 2 1 The role played by the UK's scientific community in the disbursement of funds from the UGC and the research councils is similar to the peer-review process in the US, but much of UK scientists' advice is provided through informal channels. The US and the UK carry out more than half of their key basic research in universities, whereas national laboratories and independent institutions produce most of the work in other countries. In France, for instance, the single most important funding agency is the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris, which in 1979 directly employed about 8,500 scientists and 14,000 support personnel. 2 1 R&D priorities are developed at the level of national policy by the Secretary of State for Research, and the size of each CNRS laboratory, its budget, and the number of new positions in the system are all determined by the government. All university faculty are civil servants, paid directly by the Ministry of the Universities. The most prominent scientific advisory group is the Advisory Committee for Research in Science and Technology (CCRST), also known as the Committee of Sages. Made up of 16 members, the CCRST advises the Secretary of State for Research on a wide range of scientific issues. Several large French government R&D agencies, however, pursue courses that are essentially independent of CNRS. 2 1 The Ministry of Defense, for example, which accounts for one-third of all government financing of research, relies heavily on its own facilities and establishes its own priorities, although it does have extensive contact with industry and academia. Other largely independent agencies include the National Institute for Health and Medical Research, the National Institute for Agricultural Research, the National Center for Space Studies, the National Center for Telecommunications Studies, and the National Center for Exploitation of the Oceans. The CCRST has no influence with the technical ministries, which have their own advisory groups of scientists. Research funds in the FRG are provided by state and federal governments, private foundations, and industry. 2 1 For basic research, most of the funding is supplied by the federal government's Ministry of Research and Technology (BMFT) and the Ministry for Education and Science. However, state governments also contribute significantly—especially to the privately operated Max Planck Institutes, a system of research institutions set up outside the university system to support outstanding scientists in key fields. The BMFT also provides the principal support for applied re-
