Model for assessing research activity by Sustainability Index using fuzzy AHP

It is important to assess sustainability of research activities carried out in a university. The result can be used as information for university administrators to develop a policy for preventing pollution and hazards generated from research activities. The objective of the paper is to present an application of a Sustainability Index model. The proposed model is used to assess the sustainable university regarding research activities. The important weight of sustainability is analyzed by using fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP). FAHP emphasizes fuzzy theory and pairwise matrix comparison theory. This model is applied to a case of study of research projects in Thailand. At first, research activities are broken down and sources of sustainability are identified. The data were collected regarding research project lifecycle. Then, major sustainable initiatives are identified. The important weight of sustainability for each research activities is analyzed. The Sustainability Index is created from important weight of sustainability magnitude. Fuzzy numbers are used to cope with uncertainties associated with the data collected by questionnaires distributed to researchers.