Best Practices in Assessment of Research and Development Organizations Summary of a Workshop (2012) / Chapter Skim
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They considered past research the best indicator of future success. They suggested that managers must be hands-on and aware that time is the enemy (the maximal time line for achieving commercialization is generally 4 years for industry and venture-capital initiatives)
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The congressional authorizing committee chair influences the Appropriations Committee chair. These are ultimate targets and prime readers of assessment reports.
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Kealey's perspective is that an R&D organization exists as a modus vivendi between stakeholders of the organization and its researchers, and that one cannot get people capable of embracing and understanding the cutting edge of literature to capture value for the parent organization unless one gives them money to play with. Sommerer noted that one cannot expect a staff of nonpractitioners (those who are not directly and intimately involved with the R&D activities)
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Does the R&D organization have a strategy and appropriate resources for engagement with the larger technical community, the commercial sector, and the global community? Is innovation welcomed, supported, and protected?
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Stephen Rottler: Assessing Sandia Research J Stephen Rottler emphasized that Sandia National Laboratories has undergone a continuous evolution of assessment of quality, relevance, and impact, with quantitative assessment evolving into qualitative assessment that is informed by data.
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provides oversight for this program, which captures principal-investigator-generated ideas within the management context. The program includes 5 or 6 grand challenge projects; each of these larger projects has an assigned external advisory board.
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To assess outputs, the excellence of scientific and technical advances is addressed within the context of management excellence, which involves measuring elements of the work environment and management assurance. To assess inputs, the capabilities of staff, technology infrastructure, and facilities are addressed by examining the science, technology, and engineering strategy through measurements of parameters indicative of the portfolio and the technical planning process.
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For the national laboratories, customers are the sponsoring government department and society, and stakeholders are taxpayers, the community, employees, and companies. Assessment practices must show recognition of the importance of time frame.
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Successes can be communicated through anecdotes, but past history does not prove future success. It is critically important to look at an organization's total portfolio and to examine how well the organization is spending the whole portfolio, not just the best portion of it.
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Committees-of-the-whole involve the entire MSR organization in hiring discussions. Management-by-walking-around is a key element of informal assessment, which should not be confined to annual review.
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. In assessing "how it gets done," MSR evaluates collaboration (with the understanding that the best research usually involves collaboration)
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The following issues are germane to the consideration of both quality and relevance: the adequacy of the resources available to support highquality work; the effectiveness of the organization's delivery of the services and products required to fulfill its goals and mission and to address the needs of its customers; the degree to which the organization's current and planned R&D portfolio supports its mission; and the elements of technical management that affect the quality of the work. As with development programs, metrics are required to assess the quality and relevance of research programs.
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When the internally generated basic and applied research effort falls significantly below 10 percent, the overall quality and stature of the research organization diminish significantly. The following are management functions: providing the resources available to support high-quality work, effectively delivering the services and products required to 6 National Research Council, Managing Air Force Basic Research, Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1993.
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The manager must also be the marketing leader in finding research grants for internally generated basic and applied research proposals; must support customers who are seeking solutions to problems using applied research; and must diligently push for balance between internally generated basic and applied research proposals, customer-funded basic research proposals, and customerfunded advanced engineering support. Non-academic organizations (e.g., corporations and government organizations)
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