Nordland Research Institute
Units included in the
evaluation of sociology
- Nordland Research Institute Listed researchers 9 Listed research groups 1 No. of researchers in listed
research groups 12 (16 CVs)
Other units of the institution
Training, recruitment and academic positions 2014 2015 2016 No. of PhD graduated at the institution per year
Male/Female -/- -/- -/-
R&D expenditures and sources of funding (1000 NOK) Total per year - - - No. of positions announced / No. of qualified applicants per year
2014 2015 2016
Funding of the institution PhD positions 1/3 -/- -/-
Total
expenditures 30 236 29 802 32 915 Post.doc positions -/- -/- -/- Permanent
positions 2/2* 6/17* 5/19*
Types of funding
Education Core funding
from the Norwegian gov.
5 330 4 667 4 811
Study programmes BA level External funding, -
RCN 9 127 10 029 7 684
External funding
EU 0 0 0 Study programmes MA level
- External funding,
other sources 26 719 21 684 32 675 Other
* Total numbers for applicants. Two sociologists were recruited in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Source: The Research Council of Norway, Self-assessment report for the institution, 16/12960
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11.1 Sociology at the institutional level
Nordland Research institute (NRI) was originally founded in 1979 as a private foundation located in Bodø in Nordland county. It became a limited company on 1 January 2010, co-owned by Nord University (51%) and the Nordlandsforskning Foundation (49%). It combines publicly funded scientific research and commissioned research related to social science, entrepreneurship and the environment.
The institute currently has 47 employees (a little more than 34 full-time equivalents), of whom nine researchers are listed for the evaluation of Sociology. Research takes place in close cooperation between different social science disciplines (e.g. social anthropology, geography, political science and economics).
Organisation, leadership and strategy
NRI is organised as a typical research institute, led by a managing director. The institute has a number of strategic goals for quality, publishing, dissemination and relevance, each with specific performance targets, but these are not detailed in the self-assessment. More specifically, the institute aims to become a Centre of Excellence.
Its research is organised on the basis of three strategic scientific topics: 1) Green shift, 2) Welfare service innovation, and 3) Entrepreneurship and innovation. The institute has international contacts – particularly in Europe and North America – but it is also dependent on close relationships with local non-academic partners.
While the institute sees itself as a locally based institute, it wishes at the same time to be a preferred partner in national and international research. In commenting upon the 2010 evaluation, the institute argues that it will always be dependent on what local and national partners see as important research.
The panel would have liked to see a more detailed discussion of the tensions between market-driven demands and the institution's academic goals.
Institutional follow-up of previous evaluations
The institute has a multidisciplinary profile and has attempted to improve its scientific publications as part of its research strategy. The institute has a detailed strategy to improve the number and quality of scientific publications.
Resources and infrastructure
Most of its funding comes from external public Norwegian sources, and a large share of the external funding comes from research contracts based on open tenders. A much smaller part comes from the RCN and the Government. There is little international funding. The institute is well aware that its financial situation is a challenge as regards international publishing.
Research environment
There is little information about the research environment in the self-assessment.
Research personnel
Advertisements of permanent staff positions during the last two years have shown that there are about three to four applicants per position. One of the threats to the institute is a low share of staff with professor competence and difficulties in attracting senior research personnel.
No PhDs have graduated in sociology during the period 2014–2016.
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Eight of the institute’s researchers are listed as sociologists, but none of them consider themselves to be ‘pure’ sociologists and most of the research at the institute is multidisciplinary.
Research production and scientific quality
Sociological research takes place in close cooperation with other disciplines. The institute has a number of strategies to increase international publishing, but so far it has been less successful because of pressure to publish nationally and locally.
Due to its interdisciplinary profile, the institute has had difficulty selecting the ten sociology publications that are part of the assessment. Because of the selection procedure the large majority of the papers are qualitative and more than half of the submitted publications are authored or co-authored by one member of the staff.
The submitted publications cover a broad range of topics, but they are mostly related to health or welfare provision in Norway, sometimes in a comparative perspective. The publication points per researcher as well as the percentage of Level 2 publications are low, as are the figures for impact.
Assessment of scientific quality: 1 - weak
Interplay between research and education
The institute has no formal teaching obligations.
Societal relevance and impact
The institute has developed a number of strategies to increase its impact in relation to the media, research partners and national and international researchers. The institute uses several methods to generate research impact, ranging from scientific reports and films to monthly public debates.
The institute's work on restorative justice in relation to young people has impacted policing and police education. The institute mentions several cases of research impact on government debates and welfare policy initiatives.
Overall assessment
NRI is a regionally rooted, primarily multidisciplinary institution, and it may be difficult to identify specifically sociological research, although its sociological research seems to primarily be related to welfare policy and welfare services. Based on the statistical evidence, the level of scientific publishing is quite low. It is important for the institute to be visible at the regional level and to accommodate local research needs, At the same time, however, the institute wishes to be at the research frontier through scientific publications. However, the institute has a very high degree of external funding, which may limit the time available to staff for work on high-quality academic publishing. Therefore, the institute must constantly struggle to strike a balance between adjusting to the market while still being able to conduct high-quality research that is initiated and driven by the institute's researchers. Presently, the extent of high-quality scientific publications is small.
Feedback
The institute’s ambition to combine regional relevance with scientific excellence is important. The processes aimed at increasing international publication need to be strengthened, and the panel strongly recommends that the institute not only adopt goals but also give priority to concrete activities that will ensure the possibility of progress in this area.
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11.2 Research group: Welfare Service Innovation
Organisation, leadership and strategies
NRI’s general strategies for scientific performance are shared by the research group Welfare Service Innovation. A senior researcher organises group meetings. The group’s overall strategy is to apply for a Centre of Excellence in 2020. The activities that will be carried out to reach that goal are only presented in broad institutional terms in the self-assessment, and there is a relatively weak description of the group’s understanding of the concept of welfare service innovation and what distinguishes it from other types of welfare research, in particular in relation to the research group Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Based on the submitted publications and the group’s project portfolio, it is not easy to see that the group has a clear focus. NRI provides infrastructure for the group, and the research group contributes in a number of ways to all the overall goals of NRI.
Research personnel
Recruitment is the responsibility of the NRI research director, and the members of the group are not directly involved. The group consists of 12 members, 4 of whom are men. Two members of the group are PhD students or hold postdoc positions. The group also includes two members from Nord University. The members of the group represent different social science disciplines.
Research production and scientific quality
The members of the group have published on a variety of issues, ranging from studies of religion and trust in government to organisational analyses and studies of social welfare in the broad sense, which is the dominant field of the publications. The submitted publications consist of some internationally published journal articles, primarily in Level 1 journals, PhD dissertations, and a research report. Some publications are comparative research analyses. The publications are mainly qualitative studies that present a broad array of topics and disciplines, ranging from disability studies to studies of governance.
However, several of them address relatively specific issues relating to the Norwegian welfare state. In general, the submitted publications, as well as the group members’ publication lists, display a somewhat weak and incoherent profile, and the quality of the submitted publications varies.
Networking
Some of the members of the group are only attached to the group on a part-time basis. The group has a strong research network with NORD university and it has networks with other institutes in Norway and abroad. The group might use its network more strategically to enhance its scientific quality and to achieve its overall strategic goal of becoming a centre of excellence.
Interplay between research and education
The institute has no formal teaching obligations.
Societal relevance and impact
The group has a very large portfolio of commissioned work covering a large range of topics that are of direct use for stakeholders. Several of the impact cases, in particular the case on Restorative Justice, shows that the group’s research has had an impact on government policy and on organisational initiatives in the police service.
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Overall assessment
Members of the group wish to combine often relatively small-scale commissioned work with scientific excellence. Based on the submitted publications, the focus of the group seems to be relatively vague and diverse. Moreover, its scientific production is fairly weak judging by the number of publications.
The research group’s ambition to become a centre of excellence seems to be somewhat overambitious at present, and it needs to be supported by a clear strategy and the resources required to pursue such a strategy, especially as regards strengthening the quality of its publications. The group also needs to develop a more well-defined scientific profile.
Assessment of research group: 2 - fair
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