R&D benchmarking using data envelopment analysis: The case of Thailand Research Fund

Due to the limitation in the availability of resources (time, money and researchers) for research projects, it is always a policy and decision maker´s challenge to decide on appropriate research projects or programs to support as well as how much money should be spent and how the funding should be managed in order to achieve the research goals. Thus, it would be helpful to provide the information on efficiencies of different research projects or programs to assist the decision making process. This paper provides the measurement and comparison of the efficiencies of the research projects or programs by utilizing data envelopment analysis (DEA) method applied to a case study of Thailand Research Fund (TRF). DEA technique is used because it does not require the impossible-to-define explicit input-output relationship of the research projects. Based upon the analysis result and the policy implication, it would enable the decision maker to identify the projects or programs with high efficiency which should be supported continuously as well as the projects or programs with lower efficiency which should be terminated or improved their operation.