A central issue in science policy today is the changing role and function of
research evaluation. How is quality selected, has local organizational traditions
and managerial practices influence on the research evaluation? Who is
perceived as peers or evaluators by the researchers and by managers? Recent
organizational theory has focused on organizational and social dimensions in
private knowledge-based companies, but left out research organizations. How
important is the organizational context for the research evaluation processes?
The paper will present results from an interview-based study of four private
and public research organizations and discuss the importance of the
organizational context on the production of new knowledge.