The effect of public funding on scientific performance: A comparison between China and the EU
Lili Wang, Xianwen Wang, Fredrik Piro & Niels J. Philipsen
#2019-045
Public funding is believed to play an important role in the development
of science and technology. However, whether public funding actually
helps to increase scientific output (i.e. publications) remains a matter
of debate. By analysing a dataset of co-publications between China and
the EU and a dataset of joint project collaborations in European
Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation (FP7 & H2020), we
investigate whether different public funding agencies have different
goals in their research policy. Our results support the hypotheses that
funded research output represents the intentions of funding sponsors and
a high level of public funding does not necessarily lead to high
scientific output. Our results show that FP7/H2020 funded projects do
not have a positive contribution to the output of joint publications
between China and the EU. Interestingly, cooperation in the form of
jointly writing proposals to these EU programmes, especially when they
are not granted by the European Commission, can contribute significantly
to joint scientific publications at a later stage. This applies in
particular to cases where funding from China is involved. Our findings
highlight the key role that funding agencies play in influencing
research performance. While the Chinese government is interested in
pursuing a high number of publications, the EU cares more about the
social impact and indirect effect, which is hard to measure in the short
term.
Keywords: Public funding, research evaluation, scientific output, international collaboration, China, EU member states
JEL Classification: F02, H52, O20, O38, O52, O53