Evaluering av Rathenau-instituttet

Rathenau Institute receives funding from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and conducts research on science, innovation, and new technologies, while also organizing debates on these topics. The organization's mission, with around 50 employees, is to stimulate public and political discourse on the societal aspects of science and technology. In 2017, a committee of experts conducted an evaluation of the institute on several aspects. Dialogic (Robbin te Velde) provided the secretary for this evaluation committee and also drafted the report. In April, the Minister provided a response to the evaluation in a letter to the parliament. The committee's positive remarks include: - the institute's image, its position within the knowledge landscape, and its overall functioning, - its visibility in public debates and its ability to rise above different perspectives, - the quality of its (research) work and its informative role in the scientific system. One point of discussion remains the institute's organizational structure. So far, the Rathenau Institute, as a separate entity, falls under the KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences). However, it is not a regular scientific institute like the other KNAW institutes and thus cannot be evaluated (and managed) in the same manner. Therefore, the committee notes that the Rathenau Institute cannot be assessed based on strict academic criteria. The Minister suggests that the institute, in collaboration with its foreign sister institutes, develop a protocol for future evaluations and have this reviewed by several academies of sciences. For comparison: the number of publications by Rathenau, ITA (Austria), SCP, and Dialogic. [Image] The committee acknowledges that the current embedding within the KNAW needs to be reviewed. The recommended solution is to maintain the current organizational and administrative structure under the KNAW but remove it from KNAW's legal responsibility. The Minister expresses taking the committee's signal seriously. Together with the KNAW and the Rathenau Institute, a study will now be conducted to explore the position of the Rathenau Institute as an independent institution within the KNAW.