The evaluation system in Romania and Poland

National School of Political and Administrative Sciences

Department of International Relations and European Integration
Master Program: Security and Diplomacy
Course: Evaluation Studies

The evaluation system in Romania and Poland

Professor: Lector Univ. Monica Chiffa

Student:
Nicolae Sorocan

The evaluation system in Romania and Poland

For this paper, I have chosen to compare the Romanian system of evaluation and the
Poland system for a very simple reason. Poland has a higher standard of life, and hence criteria,
but it is not far from us, as history, geographic position and so on. Therefore, with two countries
that have many things in common, I will try to emphasize the two systems for a better
understanding.
Romanian system of evaluation
In Romania, the research and development units are the followings: national institutes for
research, development and innovation which, in theirs majority, are coordinated by the Ministry
of Education and Research; research centres within the universities; research institutes under the
Romanian Academys coordination; institutes under the coordination of other Ministries as the
Ministry of Economy, or the Ministry of Agriculture; institutes organized as commercial
companies; SMEs. The financial instruments by which the Ministry of Education and Research
finances the research activities are: Grants, National Plan for Research, Development and
Innovation, Core programmes, Sectorial Plans and INFRATECH Programme. These programmes
are opened for all the certificates research units (public or private). There must be underlined that
only a few programmes are coordinated by the Ministry, the other programmes coordination
being gained, following the competition, by other organisations which function as a contracting
authority for the programme in cause.
Evaluation process for the R&D units
The research evaluation on the scientometrics principles is an important social
component in order to the global understanding of the national policy for science, structures and
functions in the socio - economic system. The evaluation process allows the differentiation of the
research and development units related to the proficiency level realised and periodically
evaluation of the proficiency for the finding of the quality level and the quantification level of
the outcomes, the relevance an the socio - economic impact of RDT activities. The evaluation
applies to the R&D units at the whole network, no mater the organisational scheme or the
propriety. The evaluation process has two main objectives: (1) the certification / recertification of

The evaluation system in Romania and Poland

the research units capacity to undertake research and development activities; (2) the
accreditation / re- accreditation of the component units of the research and development system
of national interest. The certification and recertification of research units capacity is realised in
order to allow the participation of R&D activities financed from 1 public founds. The
accreditation is made just for the certificated units. Recertification and re- accreditation is made
every five years. This evaluation is made by the National Council for Certification and
Accreditation for Research. The Council establish the reference indicators, which define the
evaluation criteria and also their weight according to the National Strategy and Policy for the
R&D field. The Council has specialized commissions for each field. The evaluation criteria for
the certification process are:
-

the personnels structure;

the R&D personnels competencies;
the specificity and the quality level of the endowment.

The accreditation criteria are:

-

the economic and financial situation;

the personnels structure;
the R&D personnels competencies;
the specificity and the quality level of the endowment;
the proficiency level of the unities activities;
membership in the R&D activities;
management proficiency;
the applicability sphere of the R&D outcomes;
the applicability degree of the R&D outcomes.

Each criterion is dotted; the maximum score is 100 points. The minimal score for the
certification and / or accreditation is 70 points. The evaluation process related to the certification
and / or accreditation comprises the followings steps: - auto- evaluation: each unit, which
demands this, fills the evaluation questionnaire (related to the last three years results) which
consists of evaluation criteria and reference indicators; - evaluation: made by the specialized
commissions of the Council, on the basis of the analysis of the auto- evaluation questionnaire,
and, if necessary, verification of the information from the questionnaire; sometimes,
supplementary information is required; - the Council elaborates the final report of the evaluation
on the basis of the specialized commissions reports and its own findings, and proposes the
certification / recertification and / or accreditation / re- accreditation. In this way, equilibrated
development of the R&D system and the establishment of the flexible structures demanded by

The evaluation system in Romania and Poland

the national and international market are ensured. Evaluation process for the project proposals
Ministry of Education and Research designed these programs in order to promote the value in the
research field, and the support of young researchers. Furthermore, Ministry of Education and
Research is willing to 2 realise an efficient use of the available founds for the Romanian research
finance. Ministry of Education and Research finances the research projects under the
competitional system, by one of the followings categories of selection procedures: a) call for
tender and b) call for proposals .

Online evaluation
For the last years, the evaluation process for the project proposals has a new approach:
online evaluation. The methodology proposed is similar to the European Commission
assessment for the 6 th Framework Programme proposals. The major steps have been:
- date base setting up with Romanian assessment experts from inside and outside the
country; this was the subject for a dedicated call;
- documents elaboration and infrastructure enhancement, with emphasis on online
evaluation application, which allows the expert access on a password basis for documents
downloading and the evaluation fiche fulfilling;
- elaborating a new contract with special emphasis on confidentiality for each party
involved in the evaluation process.
The Ministry of Education and Research intend to develop this online evaluation, which
currently functions only for grants, to other programmes. Considering that Romanias accession
to the European Union approaches, as well as Bulgarias, the Ministry of Education and Research
is looking for the best manner to harmonise and implement the European standards and
procedures in order to continue the integration within the Unions structures.

I.

Polish system of evaluation

The evaluation system in Romania and Poland

Evaluation in Poland is carried out generally at two levels: CSF/NDP and
OP. The National Evaluation Unit is responsible for the NDP/CSF and horizontal
issues evaluations as well as the ex-ante evaluation of the National Strategic
Reference Framework (NSRF) for 2007-2013. The OP Evaluation Units,
established in the MAs are responsible for carrying out thematic and
smallscale

evaluations

mainly

aimed

at

improving

the

quality

of

implementation mechanisms. Evaluation Units are located within each OP

management structure. They are responsible for organisation of the
evaluation process within their respective OP and at their level of
implementation.

Following

the

decentralization

of

the

implementation

system, the evaluation process for 2007-2013 is also conducted at regional

level. Sixteen regional Evaluation Units, one in each Voivodeship, handle
tasks related to the evaluation of regional OPs, as well as carrying out
research for the national level on the regional dimension. Each OP MA can
transfer competences in evaluation to lower levels of implementation. As we
move into the evaluation process, the key role of the National Evaluation Unit
(NEU) must be acknowledged. The NEU is located within the Department of
Structural Policy Coordination in the Ministry of Regional Development and is
responsible for coordination of the whole system (work of other Evaluation
Units). This entity has prepared a document called Guidelines on evaluation
of Operational Programmes 20072013, together with the OP Managing
Authorities. Its purpose is to:
ensure compliance of OP evaluation with EU regulations,
define general competence areas involved in the process of NSRF
and OP evaluation in 2007 2013, define the scope of evaluations in 2007
2013,
describe the general principles of the evaluation process.
The NEU cooperates at different levels with the OP Evaluation Units to
coordinate implementation of the evaluation process. In order to prevent
duplication and to ensure spread of good practice a Steering Group for
CSF/NDP Evaluation has been established. In addition to co-ordinating
evaluation efforts and facilitating information flows between stakeholders, the
Steering Group approves the NDP/CSF final evaluation reports and ensures
the application of standards across all Cohesion Policy evaluation activity. The

The evaluation system in Romania and Poland

Evaluation Steering Group at NSRF level is responsible for setting the
directions for the work of all units. There are consultations with directors from
other Evaluation Units, as well as heads of Evaluation Units, in relation to
actual

implementation.

Thematic

Steering

Groups

have

also

been

established.
In addition, each OP Evaluation Unit can establish its own OP Evaluation
Steering Group. The NEU and OP Evaluation Units also co-operate with the
NDP and OP Monitoring Committees, whose main role is to discuss and accept
recommendations from evaluation reports, to monitor their implementation,
to approve evaluation plans and suggest additional evaluations according to
strategic

or

management

needs.

Detailed

Monitoring

Committee

responsibilities can vary between different OPs.

Summary - SWOT analysis of the Polish evaluation system

Strengths:
-

flexibility in planning
decentralisation of evaluation system
guidelines on evaluation
post-graduate studies on evaluation and other capacity building

initiatives
best practices from all levels (e.g. HC OP) to build upon
the NEU approach to developing the internal evaluation market
use of experts to help within the evaluation process (e.g. ToR drafting,

bids assessment)
work on evaluation reports and the recommendations databases.

Weaknesses:
-

lack of linkage between annual and multiannual planning (which causes

less efficiency and synergy)

weak performance of Steering Groups
insufficient communication and flow of information between stakeholders
insufficient use of evaluation report and evaluation recommendations

databases
insufficient dissemination of strategic evaluation results (they do not reach

the decision makers)

exclusive focus on operational evaluations early on in the programming
period/

Opportunities:

The evaluation system in Romania and Poland

large number of evaluation suppliers on the internal market (which

leads to reasonable prices of evaluation studies)

substantial resource allocations for evaluation
focus on multiannual evaluation planning envisaged in regulations for

2014-2020 perspective
focus on result-oriented approach within the regulations for 2014-

2020
personal attitude of people dealing with evaluation (degree of
commitment of certain individuals is impressive).

Threats:
-

limited human resources dealing with evaluation scarcity of time poor

collaboration

with

public

procurement

units

(especially

public

procurement units interpretation and understanding of qualitative criteria)

bureaucratic attitude of certain persons dealing with evaluation (some are
interested only in procedures) insufficient supply in particular fields
(transport, environment, innovativeness) insufficient support from IT
departments under-developed evidence-based policy culture lack or
deficiencies in data for counterfactual evaluations.

The evaluation system in Romania and Poland

Conclusion:
After describing the two evaluation systems we can emphasize some conclusions.
Both the evaluation systems are good implemented and hence are very utile for a better
development of these countries.
While the Romanian system of evaluation has big future plans, to extend on the on-line platform,
in order to access easier the EU possibilities, the Polish system of evaluation is very carefully
analyzed with the SWOT instrument, in order to identify better all the possibilities to enhance it
and to extend it to a next level.
Nevertheless, for Romania is a long way to get their system evaluation to the Polish
example and also to the EU norms, but the path is a solid one and promises great results in the
future to come.