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Organizational And Functional Dilemmas In Large Public Research Centers: The Spanish National Research Council Csic, Manuel Fernández-Esquinas, Jesús Sebastián, Javier López-Facal, Enrique Tortosa-Martorell

Manuel Fernández-Esquinas

What factors affect the organizational models of the large national public research centers? How does organizational change affect the nature of the scientific activities they perform? This article uses the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) to illustrate an institutional change process taking into account the tension that exists between the public status of research centers and the high level of independence of its scientific communities. The main purpose is to explain how changes in the CSIC’s internal power structure, along with the relationships with external funding and evaluation agencies, cause those research practices considered most legitimate to emerge and …