A Vague Set Based MCDM Approach for Research Funding Program Assessment

摘要

This paper proposes a vague set based multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach for evaluation of the research funding programs of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Specifically, the linguistic evaluations of experts from seven scientific departments are firstly converted into vague evaluations. Then a family of parameterized OWa operators, S-OWA operators, are developed and extended to the aggregation of the vague evaluations. The research funding programs are sorted and clustered according to the aggregated value. The results have good management insights for NSFC to improve its performance. Hence, the study can support the policy maker of NSFC in adjusting its granting structure and in improving its performance.