Conceptual issues in the evaluation of formal research networks

Thus a nation-wide research network is part of the national system of innovation, while a local research network is both a part of the local system of innovation and the mosaic of policies and structures which forms the national innovation system. [...] They are: • evaluation design should logically be based on the purpose of carrying out an evaluation; • evaluation needs to based in the characteristics of the evaluand (evaluated organisation); and • characteristics of the problem that the programme or organization under evaluation aims to resolve need to be incorporated. [...] The third stream of work appears as an attempt to bridge the formalized analysis of the literature and the needs of policy makers in assessing where to continue or discontinue funding. [...] The focus it seems of much of the research to date, then, has been on the necessity of the private and public sectors to network / collaborate in problems solving and technological communities to foster the development of new products and services etc. [...] Choices of methods follow from the identification of evaluation questions and of the kinds of impacts judged important.