Science, Research and RQ+

How do we know whether research is doing what the world needs it to do? Posts here engage with the evaluation of science and research in all its forms — research strategies, institutions, programmes and portfolios. They explore questions of research quality, relevance and impact, including through the Research Quality Plus (RQ+) framework, and examine what it takes to evaluate knowledge production with the seriousness it deserves.

Diamonds for AWARD: Evaluation and the quest for African Women Science Leaders

Evaluation as Practice

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I re-post this post - originally published on Evidence Matters of EvalPartners - as illustration of an integrated approach to determining and understanding individual capacity development and empowerment, using theory-based evaluation as well as a tailored "Four Powers" framework with the awesome acronym AWSEM. A side note: we

Evaluation Maturity Models

Evaluation as Practice

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Have you ever worked with a Research Maturity Model? Or an Evaluation Maturity Model? A 'maturity model' with well-designed sets of evaluative rubrics can be very useful in framing the level of maturity of almost anything in an organisational context. Progress made from one level to the

RQ+ - assessing research quality

Science, Research and RQ+

This blog post is about how to measure research quality when viewing research from a systems perspective. We all work with 'evidence'. This is often based on research, either by ourselves or others. Research is also crucial for a knowledge economy, and its role in society is as

AWSEM! A framework for empowering women scientists

Science, Research and RQ+

Read 5min

In one of my recent posts I wrote about the pervasive influence of power on development, and the imperative to deal with it in our evaluations. Here I want to address the evaluation of "empowerment" - the support given to individuals in their efforts to empower themselves. In development