The 2-hour meeting was kindly hosted by the UKCDS (www.ukcds.org.uk). It was attended by 14 persons representing 7 of the major UK research funding agencies operating in the international environment.
The RFI was well received and was considered to have great potential to measure and improve the ‘partnership’ component of research collaborations. Several follow-up invitations to the RFI Team are likely in the near future – i) to focus on the application of the RFI in different fields on research and ii) to explore how the RFI can add value to future grant making in research collaborations and partnerships.
One participant – for whom this was the first time to hear about the RFI – stated: It is actually amazing that you present us with a mechanism that focuses on 15 areas of partnership – and I can not disagree with any one of them.
Another participant said: the RFI holds major potential to improve research management, an area on which we are focusing – indicators 3,4 and 5 go to the heart of what we are trying to do!
In advance of the meeting, the UKCDS had published a blog on the RFI: http://www.ukcds.org.uk/
