In China applied research National S&T Funds are designed to solve key techniques for industries so as to achieve technical inventions. This paper designs a representational framework to characterize the patent output, which can be used to identify relevant technical fields through cluster analysis and construct a benchmarkingometric model to compare performances. The performance evaluation of S&T Funds focuses on the three dimensions: output, effect and influence. A relevant indicator system is also designed, including patent outputs, effective inventions, output mode, implementation license, cited times, science linkage, patent family, top 10% highly cited patents, technology influence index, representative patents, etc. Taking "water special project" as an example, the paper compares output, effect and influence from the three dimensions at domestic and international levels. It is found that the technical influence of "water special project" has been significantly improved. During the 12th Five-Year Plan period and 13th Five-Year Plan period, it far exceeded the international and domestic technical influence indexes. At the same time, it comprehensively covered 7 related technical fields, among which the technical field of water purification instruments and equipment was a characteristic field formed by related technical patent achievements under the special water project.

applied research  /  National S&T Funds  /  project evaluation  /  performance evaluation  /  benchmarkingometrics  /  patentometrics