EFIL - European dataset of public R&D funding instruments

EFIL aims at enabling users to investigate public R&D funding in Europe at the level of project funding instruments and research funding organizations (RFO), addressing questions related to policy design and policy implementation. Objectives of EFIL are: (i) re-composing and characterizing the portfolios of funding instruments of relevant RFOs from selected European countries (AT; CH; CZ; DE; DK; EE; FR; IT; NO; UK); (ii) producing evidence of the structural and allocational aspects of funding instruments.
The dataset provides a set of descriptors with an emphasis on a general characterization of the instrument (aim, mode of funding, composition of the decision-making body, etc.); funding allocation criteria and eligible beneficiaries; and funding amounts allocated. A peculiar feature of the facility is the possibility to characterize the instruments through key words and vocabularies. Indeed, the facility is complemented by a repository of official documents hosted on a cloud -composed of instrument calls, guidelines for participants, descriptions on official webpages, etc. - that is accessible to the database user.
EFIL is integrated in the European Research Infrastructure for Science and Innovation policy Studies (RISIS), interlinked with registers and datasets, such as OrgREG - which provides a comprehensive register of public-sector research and higher education organizations in European countries - , NATPRO (a module of the EUPRO database) - a data resource on national R&D projects, and SIPER - a repository on STI evaluation reports.
This registered version (2.0) corresponds to the dataset completed as part of the H2020-RISIS 2 project (2019–2024) and follows the initial release (1.0), launched in 2022. EFIL 1.0 conducted data collection using 2017 and 2018 as reference years for the re-composition of portfolios. In release 2.0, a second wave of data collection has been completed, updating data up to 2021. Budgetary data cover the period 2010–2021.
EFIL is accessible free of charge through RCF (RISIS Core Facility, https://rcf.risis.io). To gain access, users must submit a 200-word project proposal outlining the intended use of the dataset. The proposal is reviewed by both the dataset manager and the RISIS review board, which provides the final approval for access.