Over the past decade, considerable experience has accumulated in using the tools of national research management, including strategic planning, technology assessment, and performance evaluation. As an essential element of this set, retrospective research assessment at the program level, has received increasing attention among decision makers and managers in most industrialized nations--except perhaps the United States. Research assessment is likely to be of greater interest in the United States in the years ahead and this project will provide a systematic overview of past assessment studies, plus an examination of the uses to which past assessment results have been put. The project will proceed in two phases: first, a codification of approaches taken in past studies, and second, an evaluation of those approaches with suggestions for improvement to fit the U.S. context. The second stage will culminate in a colloquium, to be held in Washington, D.C., involving decision makers, analysts, research managers, and assessment experts.
