VARIO-Advisory Report 27: Vision on a good policy mix between free and thematic support for R&D in Flanders
A good mix cannot be quantified, but VARIO puts forward a number of principles
With this new advice, VARIO responds to a question from vice-minister president Crevits in reaction to an earlier VARIO-advisory report on the Sustainable Development Goals.
VARIO conducted a quantitative analysis of the relationship between free (bottom-up) and thematic (top-down) Flemish R&D resources, and its evolution over the past ten years.
Among other things, the analysis shows that:
- Almost all categories of Flemish R&D resources have grown in absolute terms.
- Free resources account for more than two thirds of the total, but show a slight downward trend from approximately 70% to approximately 66.5%.
- The budgets for the strategic research centers represent about half of the thematic resources.
- Within thematic resources, the strongest increase over time is for initiatives with mission-like characteristics. The Moonshot is the clearest example of such initiatives.
VARIO attaches great importance to strong bottom-up channels. However, there are no objective criteria to determine the correct numerical proportions in relation to top-down resources. VARIO therefore puts forward a number of principles in its recommendations, including:
- Think more in terms of cross-policy objectives and look beyond financial resources;
- Monitor ex-post the societal impact of bottom-up initiatives;
- For thematic programs, keep the themes broad to maintain sufficient competition in applications.