Research funding

“ With scientific knowledge production being increasingly enabled through peer review, and this knowledge often playing part in societal dynamics, procedural robustness and distributive efficiency of public research funding may lose their bite. ”

“ Abstract This Perspective extends an ongoing debate on transparency in research funding, advocating the exploration of more radical approaches.==Abstract== Central to research funding are grant proposals that researchers send in to potential funders for review, in the hope of approval. A survey of policies at major research funders found that there is room for more transparency in the process of grant review, which would strengthen the case for the efficiency of public spending on research. ”

“ In discussing the need for increased coordination among funders of research for health, it is important to consider what exactly needs to be coordinated. Recent positive developments among funders include the identification of common approaches to monitoring and evaluation and sharing research data [ [16] , [17] ] . However, funders have been found to fall short of agreeing on a harmonized agenda for research funding [ [18] ] . ”

“ If universities are allowed sufficient flexibility in the use of moneys from the Research Councils, Funding Councils and other sources, the new policies may be adopted both for research projects funded by the Research Councils or other external funds, and also for the research that has no dedicated source of funding, where the costs are met from the university’s block grant and other resources. ”

“ Such institutions may also further the dissemination of research results and thereby attract research funding. However, institutions have to position OER within their institutional branding and take into account any income that the sales of their educational materials may generate. ”

“ According to GMK, funders “must embrace transparency more actively.” To me, this includes research funding mechanisms in general—from individual grants and their peer review up to entire calls and programs—as well as assessing their efficiencies [23] . In particular, “developing countries could leapfrog ahead by adopting from the start science grant systems that encourage innovation” [24] , and more systemic transparency may help overcome inequalities in terms of age [25] or other aspects of diversity [26] . ”

“ Fight for fair treatment of our companies abroad. Invest in the Sciences: Double federal funding for basic research over ten years, changing the posture of our federal government to one that embraces science and technology. ”

“ Many funding agencies, including national research councils and some nonprofit organizations, offer competitively awarded seed money for pilot projects or feasibility studies to explore whether the proposed international partners are indeed suitable to pursue more substantial research questions through subsequent joint efforts. ”

“ Better transparency of the grant funding selection process would enable researchers and the public to have a better understanding of how public money is spent on scientific research; it will contribute to improved public trust in scientific research integrity while creating a new intersection for public engagement with scientific research without being detrimental to its quality or to peer review integrity. ”

“ The scope and speed of our discoveries are truly breathtaking, and each day new applications of science and technology enrich our lives in fields as diverse as medicine, communications, engineering, and the arts.
Recognizing the importance of maintaining America's scientific and technological leadership, my Administration is seeking increased funding in areas like biomedical research and in earth and space sciences. ”

“ But it is critically important that universities should be given sufficient scope to establish their own policies and funding arrangements, which will provide incentives for them to shift funds from library budgets to the payment of APCs, and to bear down on the cost of those payments. ”

“ Be Aware of Potential Funding Opportunities Different types of research require vastly different amounts and types of funding. Costs arising from research in an international context may include purchases of materials, travel expenses, publication and other dissemination charges, and personnel costs such as salaries of postdoctoral researchers or exchange students. Which of these costs apply to your collaboration depends on its nature. ”

“ FIGURE 5.1 Current funding cycle for research articles
Figure from Creative Commons Wiki: https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/File:Research_articles_cycles.jpg
Author: Billymeinke | CC BY 4.0 | Cropped and desaturated from original
institutions seek funds to conduct a variety of research. Most often this funding comes from government sources (e. g., the National Institutes of Health in the United States) , although there are several philanthropic foundations (such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) that are now making major investments in particular types of research. ”

“ Researchers in other universities have to submit a claim to the Trust itself, which then supplements the research grant. A key point is that funding can be provided beyond the time when a grant has come to an end. Arrangements are also in place to allocate costs among different funders who are members of the UKPMC consortium (including MRC and BBSRC as well as the major medical research charities) where papers are the result of funding from more than one of them.
5.12. Research Councils currently make provision to enable researchers to meet APCs in two ways. ”

“ Among industrialized nations, our country's scores on international science and math tests rank in the bottom third and bottom fifth, respectively. Over the last three decades, federal funding for the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences has declined at a time when other countries are substantially increasing their own research budgets. Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe federally funded scientific research should play an important role in advancing science and technology in the classroom and in the lab. ”

“ To accelerate the march of discovery across all these disciplines in science and technology, I ask you to support my recommendation of an unprecedented $3 billion in the 21st Century Research Fund, the largest increase in civilian research in a generation. We owe it to our future. ”

“ Any person therefore who undertook a research became a loser, and aid from the Government Grant fund did not entirely cover his loss. Only scientific men who had other sources of income were able to avail themselves of the grants. ”

“ Of course, much of the expenditure on R&D is devoted to the development of products, processes or services, relatively little of which results in the kinds of research findings and outputs that are reported in books and journals. Governments tend to be the major funders of the basic and applied research that results in such findings; and they have increased—or at least sought to protect—their budgets for investment in research because they see such investment as an essential underpinning for a successful modern economy and society. ”

“ When federally funded research is available to the public, it can improve lives, provide policymakers with important evidence with which to make critical decisions, accelerate the rates of discovery and translation, and drive more equitable outcomes across every sector of society. ”

“ In a nutshell, thus, funding agencies have done a remarkable job of increasing the robustness of their procedure by making it more and more elaborate.
The larger developments, such as the changing relationship between science and society, and the increased role that peer reviewing plays in the daily work of an average researcher, have not found the attention of funding agencies, though. As for the former, scientifically produced knowledge plays an extremely important role in our lives. It has become the basis of our economic growth ”

“ Through such a system of mandates in which researchers would be directly confronted with both the services offered and the expenditure of their own potential research funds on such services, this market might be spurred to competition. ”

“ Closely allied with the problem of economic ad­justment is the question of scientific research. I de­sire to reiterate my recommendation in a previous message to the National Assembly to consolidate all the agencies of the Government engaged in scientific research into one scientific research institute, using the Bureau of Science as a nucleus for the purpose. The expenses for its operation may be covered with the funds appropriated for the Bureau of Science and the other agencies of the Government dealing in re­search. ”

“ It has resulted both in a large increase in the number of applicants and of researches; and has shown that there exists in this country a large amount of scientific ability in need of encouragement. The amounts granted were increased in magnitude so as to cover in some cases payments made to assistants and the entire outlay made for experiments, also a small payment for a portion of the time occupied in actual research. The plan of awarding the grants has been for work proposed by the applicants to be done, and not for that already performed. ”

“ There is also a real return received by the public for expenditure of money in research, in the free liberty to use all new knowledge developed everywhere by such labour, and although the money expended by a community upon particular researches or upon an individual investigator, does not directly produce an immediate return; practically an immediate and direct benefit is received by that community, because new scientific knowledge for the use of teachers and popular lecturers, and new inventions based upon it, of local value to that society, continually become public. ”

“ Our Government has as yet made but little payment for the labour of pure research in experimental physics or chemistry; it has, however, given four thousand pounds a year for five years to be distributed by the Royal Society among scientific investigators, partly as personal payment. ”

“ If an electrical concern that must at all odds pay dividends to the present generation, can afford to pay over a hundred thousand dollars annually for research, how much can the state afford to pay for research in pure science, in physics, in mathematics and chemistry, which will be absolutely essential to radical progress a century hence. ”

“ Under such inspiration the national Government has entered into rivalry with the private investigators of the country to promote research, develop resources, and accumulate useful knowledge for the people. Millions of money are now spent on investigations of all kinds, on collections and surveys, buildings, apparatus, salaries, and publications made at extravagant cost, and which are without that warrant of necessity which should be the sole reason of any scientific undertaking by the state. ”

“ Considering the multiplicity and variety of philanthropic institutions and bequests in this country, and the great effect original scientific research has in ameliorating the condition of mankind, and reducing the amount of human misery, it is surprising that no wealthy philanthropic individual has bequeathed funds for the endowment of an institution for pure research in physics or chemistry. ”

“ In national improvements, expense is quite a secondary consideration; the funds however for providing State laboratories already exist; the sum of nearly £600,000 has accumulated in the form of fees received by Government for the granting of patents for inventions; and as the discoveries made by scientific men form the materials by means of which those inventions were made, the money thus accumulated may be justly claimed by scientific discoverers as a suitable source from which their labours should be remunerated by the State. ”

“ The government gives the society rooms at Burlington House and two grants, one of £4,000 for scientific researches and one of £1,000 for publication. The society is, however, only a trustee to award the grant for scientific research, and, as Sir Archibald Geikie pointed out, the funds of the society are not commensurate with the work it accomplishes. ”

“ Dynamics between different stakeholders are complex. Moreover, sometimes the same person may wear many stakeholder hats; e.g., an academic researcher may also be journal editor, spin-off company owner, professional society officer, government advisor, and/or beneficiary of the industry.
Research Currencies
Publications and grants are key “currencies” in science (Table 2) . They purchase academic “goods” such as promotion and other power. Academic titles and power add further to the “wealth” of their possessor. ”

“ At present we spend about eighteen and a half millions a year upon education out of our national funds, but fourteen and a half of this, supplemented by about as much again from local sources, is consumed in merely elementary teaching. So that we spend only about four millions a year of public money on every sort of research and education above the simple democratic level. Nearly thirty millions for the foundations and only a seventh for the edifice of will and science! ”

“ The plan was based on the conviction ‘that the intention of the donor was to advance science by original research and publication; that the establishment was for the benefit of mankind generally, and that all unnecessary expenditures on local objects would be violations of the trust.’ His ‘Programme of Organization’ was submitted to the Board of Regents in the following year, was adopted as its governing policy, and has been reprinted in full or in part in almost every annual report. ”