Resources, Capacities and Procedural Knowledge – The Role of German Research Executive Agencies in National and International Science Funding Programmes

The research executive agencies system was implemented in Germany in the 1970´s when the burden of the administration of publicly funded research projects could not be handled anymore by the administration of the former science ministry alone. Despite the growing number of the duties of those agencies and the qualitative and quantitative changes of their involvement in the German states’ as well as the European science funding programmes, research executive agencies didn´t get much attention by science policy studies so far. Those scholars mentioning research executive agencies seem quite divers in their assessment of the control of the German science ministry over the agencies, of their status as an autonomous actor and their relationship with the scientists. Examples are Braun attesting a “master-servant-relationship” between the agencies and the science ministry (1993), or Mayntz and Scharpf who characterize the agencies as “intermediaries between the ministry and the working scientists“ (1990). Our contribution takes a closer look at the concrete practices of research executive agencies, at the diversification of tasks and the recipients of those tasks and how the different expectations and interests stemming from the ministry, the scientists, the European Union (EU) and from the agencies themselves are brought in line. As a subunit of the research executive agencies in Germany, ´National Contact Points´ are in charge of the support of applicants for European research funding. Using the example of ´National Contact Points´ we want to show the complexity of translation needs, decision making processes and the entanglement and mutual dependencies among the different actors. After more than 40 years of organisational history and development, German research executive agencies are equipped with resources and capacities, which seem indispensable for the federal ministry, as well as valuable procedural knowledge about national and EU science funding programm