Coping with environmental pressures:: public research organisations responses to funding crises

The research system is highly dependent upon the resources provided by the political system. Rising costs of research projects and the emergence of financial problems in government have triggered a reduction in direct support to public research organisations (PROs). The aim of this paper is to analyse how a group of Spanish public research organisations affected by the reduction in direct transfers of State funds have reacted to this situation. By reviewing the PROs' responses, an institutionalist argument is built up based on the degree and type of autonomy which the centres and researchers enjoy. Factors which explain the diversity in response of the centres in their funding strategies are: (a) the political autonomy of the PROs with respect to their tutelary ministries, and (b) the autonomy of the researchers within the organisation, the nature of the individual incentive programmes and their level of dependence on collective resources. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.