Static R&D project portfolio selection in public organizations

•A multi-objective model framework where projects are sets of tasks is proposed.•The model framework includes synergies between tasks or projects.•The presented model framework supports both partial and total funding policies.•Instances ranging from small to large are solved efficiently in a standard solver.•Factors affecting solution quality and computational load are statistically examined.

The problem of static research and development (R&D) project portfolio selection arises when a public organization opens a call for proposals and then builds a portfolio choosing which ones to fund in terms of impact measures including social objectives, emphasis areas, geographical influence, and other non-monetary factors. The funds are classified into types of expenses, depending on the goals and preferences of the organization: equipment purchases, travel expenses, scholarships, publication fees, etc. We propose a mathematical model framework in which each project proposal comprised tasks with a specific type of expense and the assigned funding may be a fraction of the requested amount, accounting for possible inter- and intra-proposal dependencies. We present computational experiments that show our models to be efficiently resolvable.