ELEWI – productivity in the life sciences

Dr. Denitsa Angelova

Universities do not lack key figures. The achieved scientific performance is continuously being measured, evaluated, correlated with each other, and compared in rankings. However, these key figures do not provide information on the efficiency of the scientific production. They do not deliver information about the resources that scientists in various subjects and disciplines use to get to their results.

Within the project, the Chair of Agricultural Production and Resource Economics closely cooperates with the HIS-Institut für Hochschulentwicklung e.V. We will develop a mathematical model in order to establish a better understanding of the relationship between resources used and performance. The aim of the analysis is to describe which conditions (inputs) affect the output of scientific institutions most positively. To do so, econometric methods will be combined with a qualitative analysis that deals with the question of what can be regarded as an input at a specific point in time and what can be seen as an output. Publication data, financial means, staff as well as participation in think tanks can serve as input factors for the mathematical model. To allow for an appropriate consideration it is crucial to take the subject-specific logics into account. For this reason, different conditions for the disciplines biology and for agricultural sciences will be compared.

The project ELEWI is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and is part of the program “quantitative science studies”.