Research centers' ranking and resource management

In recent decade, there has been an increase in the number of research centers and the allocated budget and resources to research in Iran. These research centers show widely different performance and research impacts. Identifying the sources of such differences can help the research sector managers improve the effectiveness of distributed resources. This study was performed on 28 research centers which were evaluated in Iran’s Ministry of health’s annual ranking of research centers and received their budget from research deputy of Iran University of medical sciences. The outcome of interest was the score gained in the ranking which is calculated based on number and quality of the articles, number of citations, H index of the research center, books and abstracts. In univariate analysis, tenure of the research center, its total allocated space, number of faculty members, number of non-faculty employees and total budget and number of research based students (PhD by research, post-doctorate and clinical Scientists) were significantly correlated with the score. In regression model, number of non-faculty employees and total budget were the significant predictor variables of the score. The results suggest that lack of human resources in research centers as well as budget limitations can hinder the optimum performance of research centers. Providing the necessary personnel in research centers can increase the effectiveness of the allocated research budget in research centers.