The Flemish Research Discipline Classification Standard: A Practical Approach

Abstract

In 2010, a study was performed by the Flemish universities in cooperation with the Flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR) on the administrative burden of research reporting in Flanders, Belgium. One of the most prominent observations of this study (Peters and Lambrechts 2011) consisted of the redundancy that occurs both in preserving, classifying and reporting research information to different stakeholders in a region as small as Flanders. In response to this study, the Flemish government assigned the Centre for Research & Development Monitoring (ECOOM) with the task to: 1) develop a research discipline classification standard for the Flemish region that could serve all existing use purposes; 2) effectuate the implementation of this research classification standard by all Flemish stakeholders and 3) prevent data loss when classification schemes would be converted. This paper discusses the background, creation and implementation of the Flemish Research Discipline Classification Standard.