Along with the other research funding agencies like FWO, the BOF (extraordinary research fund) is an important financial source for the stimularion of academic scientific research in Flanders. The BOF is an inter-university financial distribution mechanism providing each of the Flemish universities with substantial financial resources which can be further distributed to larger or smaller research projects according to internal allocation rules based on peer-review and internal competition.
The lumb sums of financial means are distributed along the universities using a funding formula calulating the share of each institute in the sum of a set of weighted parameters. These parameters include bibliometric indicators but also take the number of granted PhD's into account.
The modalities for the calculation of the shares and the distribution of the resources are described in the most recent BOF-regulation (BOF-besluit) of the Flemish goverment.
The calculation of these bibliometric parameters is one of the core tasks of ECOOM. The indicators are based on publications indexed int he Web Of Science Core Collection or included in the Flemish Academic Bibliography for the Social Sciences and Humanities (VABB-SHW).
Publication indexed in the Web Of Science are weighted using the 'Characteristic Scores and Scales' methodology but also based on international collaboration and in the near future also on interdisciplinarity. All required methodology for the application of these weighting schemes have been developed at ECOOM and has been extensively described in international literature.
