Procedures for Organising the International Evaluation of Scientific Institution Activity

Issued pursuant to
Section 41, Paragraph three
of the Law on Scientific Activity

1. The Regulation prescribes the procedures by which the Ministry of Education and Science (hereinafter - the Ministry) shall, once every six years (hereinafter - the evaluation year), organise the international evaluation of scientific institutions activity (hereinafter - the evaluation).

2. To organise the evaluation, the Ministry shall attract a performer of the evaluation in accordance with this Regulation - a legal person who has professional experience and competence in organising evaluations of the scientific activity of scientific institutions, as well as good reputation and corresponding capacity (hereinafter - the performer). The Ministry shall attract the performer in accordance with the requirements of the laws and regulations in the field of public procurements. The Ministry shall organise the evaluation of those scientific institutions which have provided the information referred to in Paragraphs 16 and 17 of this Regulation.

3. The Ministry shall provide the user rights of the National Research Information System (hereinafter - the Information System) to the performer by complying with the normative regulation regarding the Information System.

4. The performer, in conformity with the requirements of this Regulation and upon consulting with sectoral ministries to which scientific institutions are subordinate, the organisations representing scientific institutions, and the Latvian Council of Science, shall develop and the Ministry shall approve the evaluation methodology.

5. The performer shall ensure the implementation of the evaluation which provides for the attraction of foreign experts and organisation of the evaluation work, as well as the preparation of a report by foreign experts on the evaluation of scientific institutions (hereinafter - the consolidated report).

6. The performer shall:

6.1. establish and organise the evaluation work in the following collegial groups of foreign experts (hereinafter - the group of experts) in conformity with the normative regulation regarding the fields and subfields of science of Latvia:

6.1.1. the group of experts in natural sciences;

6.1.2. the group of experts in engineering and technology;

6.1.3. the group of experts in medical and health sciences;

6.1.4. the group of experts in agriculture, forestry, and veterinary sciences;

6.1.5. the group of experts in social sciences;

6.1.6. the group of experts in humanities and the arts;

6.2. ensure that there are at least six foreign experts in each group of experts, one of whom - the head of the group of experts, one - an expert on national economy, and at least one foreign expert corresponds to the field of science of activity of the scientific institution or assessment entity referred to in Sub-paragraph 15.2 of this Regulation in accordance with the normative regulation regarding the fields and subfields of science of Latvia;

6.3. provide the right to the scientific institution to become acquainted with members of the relevant group of experts who have been attracted for the evaluation of the scientific institution. The scientific institution shall, within five working days after receipt of such information, send the performer a written submission on the conformity of foreign experts with the field of science of activity of the scientific institution or the assessment entity referred to in Sub-paragraph 15.2 of this Regulation in accordance with the normative regulation regarding the fields and subfields of science of Latvia. If the performer recognises the abovementioned submission as justified, it shall update the composition of the relevant group of experts in order to ensure the evaluation of the scientific institution.

7. The requirements for a foreign expert shall be as follows:

7.1. a doctoral degree;

7.2. international experience in evaluation of research and development systems or scientific institutions which has been obtained in different countries;

7.3. scientific work experience of at least 10 years and published original scientific articles in scientific journals or collected articles reviewed and included in Web of Science or SCOPUS databases the citation index of which reaches at least the average index in the field (not applicable to an expert on national economy);

7.4. does not represent the scientific institution and there are no circumstances in his or her activity that would give rise to a conflict of interests, including that do not cause and will not cause personal or material interest.

8. The requirements for the head of the group of experts shall be as follows:

8.1. the conformity with the requirements referred to in Paragraph 7 of this Regulation;

8.2. experience in the management of an international group of experts upon evaluating scientific institutions.

9. The group of experts shall fulfil the following tasks:

9.1. evaluate the information provided in the self-assessment report on the scientific institutionʼs activity (hereinafter - the self-assessment report);

9.2. evaluate the information included in the Information System regarding the scientific institution;

9.3. evaluate the information available in Web of Science, SCOPUS, and other database for scientific literature and the results of the bibliometric analysis;

9.4. make onsite visits to the scientific institution which include interviews with employees of the scientific institution and examination of the research infrastructure. During the visits the scientific institution may additionally organise interviews for the group of experts with the sectoral ministry to which the scientific institution is subordinate, and with the representatives of the involved industries, taking into account the specific nature of the operation of the scientific institution;

9.5. prepare a review on the evaluation results of each scientific institution or the assessment entity referred to in Sub-paragraph 15.2 of this Regulation (hereinafter - the review).

10. The performer shall, in cooperation with the heads of the group of experts:

10.1. provide an opportunity for the scientific institution to become acquainted with the report and to provide objections and supplements for it within 10 working days from the day when the opportunity to become acquainted with the report was provided thereto;

10.2. after evaluation of the objections and supplements received, prepare a report of each group of experts and the consolidated report of each group of experts.

11. The Ministry, upon consulting with sectoral ministries to which scientific institutions are subordinate, the organisations representing scientific institutions, and the Latvian Council of Science, shall develop and approve the sample form for the self-assessment report.

12. The Ministry shall publish a sample form for the self-assessment report in the Information System until 1 January of the evaluation year.

13. The performer and the scientific institution shall provide the group of experts with the information necessary for fulfilling the tasks referred to in Paragraph 9 of this Regulation and organisational support.

14. The group of experts, upon fulfilling the tasks referred to in Paragraph 9 of this Regulation, shall follow these basic evaluation principles (hereinafter - the basic evaluation principles):

14.1. in evaluating the quality of scientific activity, fundamental and applied research shall be evaluated as equally significant;

14.2. in evaluating the impact of scientific activity on the relevant field of science, its impact on the related fields, the conformity with the objectives of the State scientific and technological development, as well as education and innovation development policy shall be evaluated;

14.3. in evaluating the economic and social impact of scientific activity, the potential of scientific results to promote higher education, social equality, integration and welfare, public health, national security, sustainable development of the social, economic and culture field, public understanding of the significance of scientific activity, as well as impact on the achievement of the objectives, development of priorities and areas of the Smart Specialisation Strategy shall be evaluated;

14.4. in evaluating the research infrastructure and its conformity with the operation of the scientific institution, the conformity with the institutional management, ensuring open access, long-term development, and resource planning shall be evaluated;

14.5. in evaluating the development potential of the scientific institution, the following aspects shall be evaluated:

14.5.1. the future vision of the scientific institution, including to what extent the evaluation of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the scientific institutions is justified;

14.5.2. the development plan of the scientific institution for the management of the following factors:

14.5.2.1. the ability of the selected scientific objectives to influence the international scientific community;

14.5.2.2. the ability to initiate new research directions;

14.5.2.3. the ability to attract students, doctoral candidates, and foreign researchers;

14.5.2.4. the ability to attract funding as a result of tenders;

14.5.2.5. international competitiveness of the academic staff;

14.6. in evaluating the quality of scientific activity, the cooperation of the scientific institution with the sector of national economy corresponding to the field of its activity shall be evaluated.

15. The group of experts shall, by following the basic evaluation principles and justifying the evaluation in the report of the group of experts with qualitative analysis of the acquired results:

15.1. award a score to the scientific institution in the amount of one to five points;

15.2. if the scientific institution is an institution of higher education the structure of which includes more than one faculty, evaluate each assessment entity of the institution of higher education (hereinafter - the assessment entity) and award a score in the amount of one to five points for each assessment entity. The number of the assessment entities in an institution of higher education shall not exceed the number of faculties of the institution of higher education. The assessment entities comprise the whole scientific activity of the institution of higher education as the scientific institution. The institution of higher education shall determine the type of assessment entities (for example, faculties, research platforms, centres) in conformity with the condition that all assessment entities are of one type, as well as determine the group of experts specified in Sub-paragraph 6.1 of this Regulation necessary for the assessment entity.

16. The scientific institution shall, until 1 January of the evaluation year, notify the Ministry in writing of the conformity of the institution with fields of science by complying with the normative regulation regarding the fields and subfields of science of Latvia.

17. The scientific institution which is an institution of higher education and the structure of which includes faculties shall, until 1 January of the evaluation year, notify the Ministry in writing of the number of planned assessment entities and the conformity of each assessment entity with fields of science by complying with the normative regulation regarding the fields and subfields of science of Latvia.

18. The scientific institution shall submit a filled-in self-assessment report and the scientific institution which is an institution of higher education and the structure of which includes more than one faculty - a filled-in self-assessment report on each assessment entity until 30 April of the evaluation year.

19. For the performance of the evaluation in 2019, the scientific institution shall, until 1 November 2018, notify the Ministry in writing of the conformity of the institution with fields of science by complying with the normative regulation regarding the fields and subfields of science of Latvia.

20. For the performance of the evaluation in 2019, the scientific institution which is an institution of higher education and the structure of which includes faculties shall, until 1 January 2018, notify the Ministry in writing of the number of planned assessment entities to be evaluated and the conformity of each assessment entity with the fields of science by complying with the normative regulation regarding the fields and subfields of science of Latvia.

Prime Minister Māris Kučinskis

Minister for Education and Science Kārlis Šadurskis

Translation © 2018 Valsts valodas centrs (State Language Centre)