Most CRCs have to fulfil reporting duties for their funding agencies.  This is often considered to be an irksome burden.  However, active monitoring and benchmarking are requirements for the strategic orientation of a CRC and are a precondition for success.

• Provide for quality procedures in the CRC, i.e.,

  • consider the use of International Standards such as ISO 9000 to ensure continuous improvement and measurement of performance,
  • install monitoring and benchmarking routines, for example by selecting a limited set of indicators and benchmarking yourself against your three most important competitors.

• Consider undertaking an internal audit before any official evaluation takes place

• create a baseline benchmark against “similar” CRCs
• self-assessment should be viewed as a tool to monitor progress internally
• strict honesty should be encouraged at all internal levels
• self-assessments should be at least annual (probably more frequent)
• Board meetings and reports to funding agencies should be used as “Self Assessment"