Homing in on excellence: Dimensions of appraisal in Center of Excellence program evaluations

Excellence has become a watchword for goal setting and assessment in science and technology policy. While the concept has been around for many years in its commonsense meaning, it is now explicitly used for science governance; however, so far little work has been done to detail, operationalize and systematize the dimensions of value present in academic evaluators’ use of the concept. This article is based on a close reading of a mid-term evaluation of several centers of excellence in Sweden, the goal of which is to achieve a detailed understanding of the evaluative components of the concept. By applying template analysis to evaluation documents, seven main components, largely referring to the organizational/institutional aspects of excellence were identified. These are analyzed and used to provide insights for evaluation scholars and practitioners into the tensions and possibilities present in the excellence concept.