Role of Capital Expenditure in the Economic Evaluation of National R&D Investment Project for Cooperative Research of University-industry-research Institute: Cases of Woodchip Power Plant Construction

The aim of this study is to provide evidence of how a change in the process of calculating the economic valuation of a project can affect the decision regarding national R&D investment. The paper examines a R&D project of cooperative research program of university-industry- research institute for the construction of a woodchip power plant to explore the role of capital expenditure in the economic evaluation of an investment project. The paper finds that the simple introduction of capital expenditure in the profitability analysis affects the perspectives on the construction plan. The results of this study indicate that standardization of the calculation process that takes different characteristics of industries into account is needed in the preliminary feasibility study of national R&D projects.