7.2.1Data and methodology

 

The full details of the methodology of the analysis can be found in the original advisory report. We summarize them here. For the exercise, the years 2013, 2017 and 2021 were analysed. In this way three different legislatures were covered. In addition, a glance was taken at the additional budget for 2022, in the context of the growth path the Flemish government has set out for R&D resources. In all instances, the budgets included are government budget allocations for R&D. The focus was mainly on the Flemish resources for R&D, which predominantly come from the policy domain of Economy, Science and Innovation (EWI). In addition, an important part is from the policy domain of Education and Training (OV), as 25% of the operating allowances of the universities is by convention counted with the R&D budget. All other policy domains also have R&D budgets, but these are comparatively much smaller. The data used were mainly taken from the ‘Speurgidsen’, yearly reports by the Department of Science, Economy and Innovation1 and from the VRWI advisory report 1942. We considered all recurrent resources together, consisting of grants, scholarships and endowments, among others. Next to the R&D budgets, VARIO separately mapped out the proportions for the ‘recovery funds’ for the policy area of Economy, Science and Innovation. One off funds have also been analysed separately in the original exercise but are omitted here, as the amounts were too small to distinguish meaningful trends.

All resources considered were ranked on a scale from thematically most free (bottom up) to thematically most steered (top down). The group of thematically steered resources has been further subdivided into distinct categories according to the level of steering, while the other group was considered together as one category. We would like to note here that any exercise of classifying involves making choices. There is often a grey area where the assigned category is debatable. Some of the resources classified as free are sometimes not so free in practice. Steered funds, for example, regularly require co-financing with other funds, which often come from the free channels. On top of this, free resources are also sometimes drawn from free channels to be deployed on specific themes (e.g., in ERA-networks), which we have called ‘hidden’ thematic resources. Free resources, without being imposed, also contribute to top-down objectives. In addition, steered resources often build on knowledge built from bottom-up resources. Because of this grey area and different estimations that can be made, the outcome of the exercise should be viewed with caution and mainly the larger trends are relevant. Assigning all resources to the distinct categories with certainty, would require an analysis of all individual 'projects', which is far beyond the scope of VARIO’s analysis.

 

1 https://www.vlaanderen.be/publicaties?title=speurgids&order_publicationdate=desc   
2 VRWI (2013). De begroting Wetenschap en Innovatie 2009-2014. Advies 194. https://www.vario.be/nl/adviezen-rapporten/advies-194-de-begroting-wetenschap-en-innovatie-2009-2014