Evaluation of the Norwegian Centres of Excellence (SFF) Funding Scheme
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Evaluation of the Norwegian Centres of Excellence (SFF) Funding Scheme Impact cases RESEARCH FOR INNOVATION AND SUSTAINABILITY Evaluation of the Norwegian Centre of Excellence (SFF) Funding Scheme Impact cases Evaluation © The Research Council of Norway 2020 The Research Council of Norway Visiting address: Drammensveien 288 P.O.Box 564 NO-1327 Lysaker Telephone: +47 22 03 70 00 Telefax: +47 22 03 70 01 [email protected] www.rcn.no The report can be ordered and downloaded at www.forskningsradet.no/publikasjoner Graphic design cover: Melkeveien Designkontor AS Photo/illustration: Iakov Kalinin/Adobe Stock Oslo, May 2020 ISBN 978-82-12-03826-4 (PDF) 1 Contents Contents ............................................................................................................................................ 2 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 3 1 SFF I ........................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 CASTL - Center for the Advanced Study of Theoretical Linguistics ......................................................... 5 1.2 CeSOS - Centre for Ships and Ocean Structures ............................................................................... 19 1.3 CMA - Centre of Mathematics for Applications ............................................................................... 32 1.4 CSCW - Centre for the Study of Civil War......................................................................................... 38 1.5 PGP - Physics of Geological Processes ............................................................................................. 53 2 SFF II .........................................................................................................................................57 2.1 CEES - Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis .................................................................. 57 2.2 CBC - Center for Biomedical Computing .......................................................................................... 71 2.3 CGB - Centre for geobiology ............................................................................................................. 78 2.4 CIR - Centre for Immune Regulation ................................................................................................ 86 2.5 CSMN - Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature............................................................................... 98 3 SFF III.......................................................................................................................................107 3.1 AMOS - Centre for Autonomous Marine Operations and Systems ................................................. 107 3.2 BCSS - Birkeland Centre for Space Science..................................................................................... 124 3.3 CAGE - Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate ................................................... 131 3.4 CBD - Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics ......................................................................................... 143 3.5 CCBIO - Centre for Cancer Biomarkers .......................................................................................... 147 3.6 CEED - Center for Earth Evolution and Dynamics ........................................................................... 158 3.7 CEMIR - Centre of Molecular Inflammation Research .................................................................... 174 3.8 CERAD - Centre of Excellence for Environmental Radioactivity ...................................................... 184 3.9 CISMAC - Centre for Intervention Science in Maternal and Child health......................................... 203 3.10 CNC - Centre for Neural Computation ........................................................................................... 206 3.11 MultiLing - Center for Multilingualism in Society Across the Lifespan ............................................ 212 3.12 NORMENT - Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders .................................................................... 221 3.13 PluriCourts - Centre for the Study of the Legitimate Roles of the Judiciary in the Global Order ...... 234 4 Appendices..............................................................................................................................238 4.1 Appendix A – Templates ............................................................................................................... 238 4.2 Appendix B - Overview of the submitted impact cases .................................................................. 242 2 Introduction The Norwegian Centre of Excellence (SFF) scheme’s primary objective has been to increase the scientific impact of Norwegian research. Societal impact has not been an aim for the individual SSF. Still, the RCN expects that positive effects on society may spring from the investments in the centres over time. Acknowledging that the path from research results to societal applications may be long and unpredictable, we do not to expect impact to be found in every centre, and certainly not yet. Due to their short time of operation we have also excluded the latest generation (SFF-IV), which started in 2017, from this part of the evaluation exercise. The RCN invited current and former SFFs to submit case studies that documented some examples of either scientific or societal impact. The invitation was sent in June 2019, and RCN held a workshop in September 2019 to clarify the assignment and to let the SFFs discuss possible cases. RCN has not given feedback on the submitted cases. Societal impact The definition of, and model for, societal impact was derived from the upcoming 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the United Kingdom. In the REF, societal impact is defined as any effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment and quality of life, beyond academia. Impact includes, but is not limited to, an effect on, change or benefit to: - the activity, attitude, awareness, behaviour, capacity, opportunity, performance, policy, practice, process or understanding - of an audience, beneficiary, community, constituency, organisation or individuals - in any geographic location whether locally, regionally, nationally or internationally. Academic impacts on research or the advancement of academic knowledge is excluded, while impacts on students, teaching or other activities both within and/or beyond the SFF is included. Scientific impact The template for scientific impact was developed by the Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Higher Education (NIFU) for this evaluation following the same structure as the template for societal impact. Scientific impact was defined by NIFU as an effect on, change or benefit to the advancement of scholarly knowledge/science. It includes, but is not limited to an effect on, change or benefit to: - theories/theoretical frameworks, - scientific methods/approaches to scientific problems - the research agenda (e.g. by providing unexpected results) Scientific impact includes opening up new fields of research; enabling new kinds of analyses, and building/developing new research fields or interdisciplinary communities. The definition of scientific impact was made flexible. If the definition did not fit the field(s) of research of the SFF, the definition could be extended to include the forms of scientific impact that are/were important in the field(s) of the SFF. 3 Guidelines The RCN had the following requirements for reporting societal/scientific impact to the evaluation: - The research underpinning the impact case should be anchored within the SFF, meaning that some of the research should have been performed and reported within the centre period. - Each SFF (except from SFF IV) is invited to submit up to four impact cases, documenting either societal impact or scientific impact. If the centre chooses to submit more than two impact cases, the centre should submit cases that represent both societal impact and scientific impact. - The SFF should use the provided templates to report the impact (Appendix A). Impact cases The RCN received 62 impact cases from 23 centres of excellence (see appendix B). 32 of the case studies were scientific impact cases, and 26 were societal impact cases. 4 of the submitted cases were a combination of societal and scientific impact. 10 centres from SFF I and -II, and all the centres from SFF-III, submitted one or more case studies to the evaluation. This was an expected result, given the short deadline, and the fact that the SFF-I and - II centres are no longer active. The submission of impact cases was voluntary. SFF I-III Scientific Societal Combination Number of Number of SFFs impact cases impact cases (sci. and soc.) impact cases submitting cases SFF I 6 6 3 15 5 SFF II 8 5 0 13 5 SFF III 18 15 1 34 13 Total 30 26* 4 62 23 * Three centres sent in the same impact case to the evaluation (CMA, CBC, PGP). The case is counted as a SFF I case in this table. Amendments made by RCN The impact cases in this report will be presented in the form submitted by the participating institutions, with two exceptions: 1. Supporting materials of a private character, such as the inclusion of e-mails or personal statements, have been omitted from section 5 in the template.