The management of scientific and technological infrastructures: the case of the Mexican National Laboratories

TL;DR

This paper investigates management practices in Mexican National Laboratories to identify factors that contribute to their effectiveness and how these practices can be used to evaluate their performance as key scientific infrastructures.

Contribution

It analyzes management practices in Mexican laboratories, verifying their impact on effectiveness and proposing indicators for performance evaluation based on empirical field data.

Findings

Relevant management practices enhance laboratory effectiveness

Certain practices are linked to higher scientific and technological output

Indicators can support performance assessment of laboratories

Abstract

The effectiveness of research units is assessed on the basis of their performance in relation to scientific, technological and innovation production, the quality of their results and their contribution to the solution of scientific and social problems. This paper examines the management practices employed in some Mexican National Laboratories in order to identify those that could explain their effectiveness in meeting their objectives. The results of other works that propose common elements among laboratories with outstanding performance are used and verified directly in the field. Considering the inherent complexity of each field of knowledge and the socio-spatial characteristics in which the laboratories operate, we report which management practices are relevant for their effectiveness, how they contribute to their consolidation as fundamental scientific and technological infrastructures, how these can be translated into indicators that support the evaluation of their performance, and still pending.