An ANP approach for R&D project evaluation based on interdependencies between research objectives and evaluation criteria

a r t i c l e i n f o As countries strive to become more efficient in investing limited resources in various national R&D projects, the evaluation of project has become increasingly important. However, due to the heterogeneity of the objectives of national R&D programs, few studies have been conducted on comparing programs on the basis of performance. This study explores the application of the analytic network process (ANP) approach for the evaluation of R&D projects that are elements of programs with heterogeneous objectives. The ANP produced the final priorities of projects with respect to benefits and costs when there are interdependencies between programs and evaluation criteria. The paper provides value to practitioners by providing a generic model for project evaluation. For researchers, the paper demonstrates a novel application of ANP under specific situation of heterogeneous objectives. The ANP approach is tested against empirical data drawn from R&D projects sponsored by the Korean government. As R&D is a major force driving national competitive advantage, governments in many countries have increased the level of R&D investment by sponsoring R&D projects. Due to the scale of funding, the complexity of technology, and the heterogeneity of objectives, the evaluation of government-sponsored projects is usually viewed as a multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. A large number of methods and techniques exist in the literature for the application of multiple criteria approaches to R&D project evaluation [10]. Approaches tend to be either qualitative or quantitative , ranging from unstructured peer review, which is normally made by a review committee with experts from academia, industry, and government, to sophisticated mathematical programming, including integer programming, linear programming, nonlinear programming, goal programming, dynamic programming, and portfolio optimization. Overviews on the topic of R&D project evaluation may be found in Most studies in R&D project evaluation are in the private sector. However, a government-sponsored project differs from those in the private sector because government-sponsored R&D project is by nature a strategic and long-term investment. Government investment in R&D seeks to influence the private sector to make investments in technological fields important to the country as a whole. Investments led by government therefore address issues of national policy that are promulgated through a variety of outcomes, such as publishing academic papers for basic research field, issuing patents and developing prototypes for applied research field, and providing funds and researchers for R&D human resource development field. This variety of …