Evaluation of the Promotion of Information Technology: Microelectronics, Microperiphery and Microsystem Technology

Abstract

The following paper gives an insight into the more than ten years of promotion and evaluation activities of the German Ministry of Research and Technology (BMFT) in the area of Microelectronics and Microsystem Technologies¹. After a short introduction to the topic, the various promotion programmes of the Ministry of Research and Technology and their developments will be presented in the second section of this paper. The third (main) section describes the evaluation activities in detail. In particular, the goals and methods of the evaluation projects as well as the completed field research will be examined. Finally, in section four, some conclusions relevant to the R&D policy decision-making process will be drawn.¹ The promotion of Microelectronics, Micro Periphery and Microsystem Technology belongs to the area “Measurement and Control Engineering” and in general is part of the promotion framework “Future Concept Information Technology” of the German government (see GMRT 1990).