Outlining the orientation toward socially relevant issues in competitive R&D funding instruments

While project-based funding in public R&D investments has grown in importance in all European countries over the last two decades, there is widespread concern among decision-makers about the actual orientation of project funding instruments to promote societal well-being. The capability of public R&D investment to improve the quality of citizens' lives implies the pursuit of "relevant" social objectives related to existing or emerging problems affecting individuals' lives and society. Particularly, when referring to project-funded research, the question of "relevance" in research objectives recalls the never-ending debate over how to translate policymakers' request for producing value from public investments in research activities into "usable results". The manuscript explores, using recent data collected at European level on public R&D funding, the portfolio of research project funding policy instruments of various public research funding organizations (RFOs) in order to shed light on how and to what extent it is oriented to address socially relevant issues. The authors examine the characterization of the single project funding instruments, which are intended to incorporate the motivations and targeted goals of public action, and the RFOs that manage them. They specifically assume that the actual orientation of funding instruments, beyond the declared objectives, is influenced by some features related to their implementation operated by the RFOs, such as the importance given to specific evaluation criteria and the composition of the evaluation panels in the selection process of the funding beneficiaries.