ABSTRACT
Public science systems comprise a country's universities, institutions for higher education and public research, leaving aside privately sponsored research as part of wider national innovation systems. This chapter compares six countries by considering the differing opportunities and social means available to them in order to realize the ambitious goals of the European Research Area (ERA): Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Italy. It analyses the six countries in their historical pathways to science, in the diversity of their institutional landscapes, and also in the existing Excellence Initiatives (EI) of research funding at national level. The chapter characterizes countries' divergent starting positions at the level of social structure. In all countries there exist national research councils and funding for EIs of different types; the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) and the Dutch Association of Universities (VSNU) assessment are nation-wide evaluation systems consequential for university funding.
