Measuring R

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Measuring RD Personnel
ECO - UIS Regional Workshop on Science,
Technology and Innovation (STI)
Indicators Tehran, Iran 8-10 December 2013
Rohan Pathirage, UIS
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Frascati Manual deals with input indicators

• RD Personnel
• All persons employed directly on RD, as well as
  those providing direct services such as RD
  managers, administrators, and clerical staff
• RD Expenditure
• Will be the subject of a separate presentation
• ? Both inputs are necessary to secure an adequate
  representation of the effort devoted to RD

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Classification by occupation

• RD Personnel consist of
• Researchers
• Technicians and equivalent staff
• Other supporting staff

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Researchers

• Researchers
• are
• professionals engaged in the conception or
  creation of new knowledge, products, processes,
  methods and systems and also in the management of
  the projects concerned

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Researchers (contd.)

• Includes managers and administrators engaged in
  the planning and management of the scientific and
  technical aspects of research
• Postgraduate students at the PhD level engaged in
  RD should be considered as researchers

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Technicians and equivalent staff

• Technicians
• whose main tasks require technical knowledge and
  experience
• perform scientific and technical tasks involving
  the application of concepts and operational
  methods, normally under the supervision of
  researchers
• Equivalent staff
• perform the corresponding RD tasks under the
  supervision of researchers in the social sciences
  and humanities

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Technicians and equivalent staff (contd.)

• Their tasks include
• Bibliographic searches
• Preparing computer programmes
• Carrying out experiments, tests and analyses
• Preparing materials and equipment for
  experiments, tests and analyses
• Recording measurements, making calculations and
  preparing charts
• Carrying out statistical surveys and interviews

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Other supporting staff

• Other supporting staff includes
• skilled and unskilled craftsmen, secretarial and
  clerical staff participating in RD projects or
  directly associated with such projects.

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Other supporting staff (contd.)

• Managers and administrators dealing mainly with
  financial and personnel matters and general
  administration, insofar as their activities are a
  direct service to RD
• Persons providing indirect services to RD, such
  as security, cleaning, maintenance, canteen
  staff, etc. should be excluded

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Headcount data (HC)

• Headcount (HC) data are data on the total
  number of persons who are mainly or partially
  employed on RD.
• Headcount data are the most appropriate measure
  for collecting additional information about RD
  personnel, such as age, gender or national origin.

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Headcount data (HC) (contd.)

• Possible approaches and options
• Number of persons engaged in RD at a given date
  (e.g. end of period)
• Average number of persons engaged in RD during
  the (calendar) year
• Total number of persons engaged in RD during the
  (calendar) year

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Full-time equivalence (FTE) data

• RD may be the primary function or maybe a
  secondary function
• It may also be a significant part-time activity
  (e.g. university teachers or postgraduate
  students)
• The number of persons engaged in RD must,
  therefore, also be expressed in full-time
  equivalents on RD activities
• FTE is the true measure of the volume of RD

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FTE (contd.)

• One FTE may be thought of as one person-year
• 1 FTE is equal to 1 person working full-time on
  RD for a period of 1 year, or more persons
  working part-time or for a shorter period,
  corresponding to one person-year.

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FTE (contd.)

• Examples
• A full time employee spending 100 of time on RD
  during a year ? (1 x 1 x 1) 1 FTE
• A full time employee spending 30 of time on RD
  during a year ? (1 x 1 x 0.3) 0.3 FTE
• A full time RD worker who is spending 100 of
  time on RD, is employed at an RD institution
  only for six months ?
  (1 x 0.5 x 1) 0.5 FTE

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FTE (contd.)

• A full time employee spending 40 of time on RD
  during half of the year (person is only active
  for 6 months per year) ? (1 x 0.5 x 0.4) 0.2
  FTE
• A part-time employee (working 40 of a full time
  year) engaged only in RD (spending 100 of time
  on RD) during a year ? (0.4 x 1 x 1) 0.4 FTE
• A part-time employee (working 40 of a full time
  year) spending 60 of time on RD during half of
  the year (person is only active for 6 months per
  year) ? (0.4 x 0.5 x
  0.6) 0.12 FTE
• 20 full time employees spending 40 of time on
  RD during a year ? 20 x (1 x 1 x 0.4) 8 FTE

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HC and FTE calculation
FT Full time PT Part time SPT Significantly
Part time
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Methods for calculating FTE

• FTE during a period is the most appropriate
• Other options
• FTEs based on the average hours worked per week
• FTEs devoted to each activity per week
• FTE on a fixed date (ignores seasonal variations
  in RD employment)
• Diversity of methods and the need for disclosure
  of method used
• Different methods are used by different countries
  and sectors
• Details of the methods employed should be made
  public

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FTE - Specific problems in the higher education
sector

• Definition of working time of an academic
  teacher/researcher
• Teaching hours usually well-defined, but absolute
  working time varies
• Number of teaching hours per week
• Demands made by examinations and student
  supervision
• Administrative duties
• Nature of RD activities and deadlines imposed
• Student vacation periods
• much of their professional activity notably
  RD is carried out outside normal working
  hours.
• Calculation of full-time equivalence
• Must be based on total working time
• No person can represent more than one FTE in any
  year and hence cannot perform more than one FTE
  on RD.

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FTE sources

• Time-use surveys (repeat every 5-6 years)
• Based on researchers own evaluation of the
  distribution of their working time (on average
  over a whole year) Examples
• with two categories research and other
  activities or
• with more categories
• Undergraduate teaching time
• Postgraduate course-work time
• Postgraduate research time
• Personal research time
• Administration
• Examinations
• Student counseling
• Unallocable internal time
• External professional time
• Total 100

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FTE sources (contd.)

• (b) Based on estimates by the heads of university
  departments or institutes
• Aggregate survey Full-time / part-time / 50 of
  time / 30 of time / etc
• Cheaper method, less heavy burden on respondents
• Questionnaires usually addressed to the head of
  the institute

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FTE sources (contd.)

• RD coefficients
• Non-survey-based coefficients derived from
  informed guesses to sophisticated models
• Sources of information
• Employment contracts
• Job descriptions
• Internal planning or evaluation tools
• Other countries coefficients
• Research grants given to different institutions
• ST publications
• Accuracy of the coefficients depends on the
  quality of judgement.

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FTE RD Expenditure (GERD)

• FTE is key to adequately calculating GERD
• Researchers salaries are a significant part of
  GERD
• GERD should only include the proportion of the
  salaries devoted to RD, i.e. FTE RD salaries
• Including HC salaries would lead to significantly
  overestimated GERD

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Counting researchers issues (1)

• Underestimation of researchers
• Unpaid research
• Informal research
• Research outside of the normal work setting with
  external funding
• Multiple part time positions not taken into
  account or undercounted
• Masters research

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Counting researchers issues (2)

• Overestimation of researchers
• Counting the contract instead of the real effort
• Multiple full-time research positions
• Special cases
• FTE calculation gt1 and FTEgtHC
• RD in times of crisis
• Visiting researchers
• Brain circulation

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Counting researchers issues (3)

• Recommendations
• Peer interviews of researchers
• Include a module on barriers
• Use secondary sources
• Publication databases, both national and
  international
• STMIS and other databases of researchers
• Databases and registers of clinical trials
• Databases and registers of the main foreign
  donors involved in funding RD in the countries
• University accreditation databases

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Breakdowns of RD personnel

• Sector of performance
• Occupation
• Qualification
• Fields of science
• Gender
• Age

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Tables recommended by Frascati Manual and the UIS

• RD personnel by sector and occupation (HC FTE)
• RD personnel and researchers by sector and by
  level of qualification (HC FTE)
• Researchers and, if possible, other categories of
  RD personnel (HC), by
• Sex Male/female
• Age Under 25 years 25-34 years 35-44 years
  45-54 years 55-64 years 65 years and more
• Fields of Science (NS, ENG, MED, AG, SS, HM)

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Summary

• RD Personnel
• Researchers, Technicians and equivalent staff,
  Other supporting staff
• Measurement
• Headcount (HC) data
• Full-time equivalence (FTE) data
• Time-use surveys
• Methods based on estimates by heads of university
  institutes
• RD coefficients

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Thank you!

• http//www.uis.unesco.org
• r.pathirage_at_unesco.org