Framework for Ex-ante Evaluation on National R&D Programs

In order to enhance the efficiency of the fiscal management on research and development (R&D) programs, since 2008 the Korean government has applied the preliminary feasibility study (PFS) to newly proposed national R&D programs of which total budget exceeding about $50 million including about $30 million or more in government subsidy. For maintaining the consistency of evaluation, the PFS standard guideline on R&D program was published in 2011. Even after the publication of the first edition of the standard guideline, the development and application of new analytical methods on R&D program plans are being carried out on an ongoing basis. Recently it is studied to publish the revised edition of the standard guideline which contains new analysis methodologies and approaches. In this paper, I will explain the standard guideline of which revision is being carried out. In the PFS on new national R&D program plans, 3 major criteria are applied to measure comprehensively effects in aspects of technology, policy, and economy induced by R&D program. In the revised edition of the standard guideline, the part that was improved mainly, is the analysis method for the technological feasibility analysis. In feasibility analysis on policy and economic feasibility analysis, small changes such as correction and reinforcement of contents were conducted. As an important tool to draw issues from the proposed R&D program plan, we developed the logic model for the PFS. Also, we modified the questionnaire for R&D logic analysis and it consists of 11 questions. The 2nd edition of the standard guideline is planned to be published at the end of 2014