The size of research funding: Trends and implications

Bloch, Carter; Sørensen, Mads Peter

doi:10.1093/scipol/scu019

Cited by 74 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…First, there has been a shift in national research funding regimes in the UK and other countries, as governments seek to assert tighter control over research, amplify the impacts of research outputs, and achieve economies of scale. This has led to a move away from funding small, individual researcher‐driven projects and toward large grants supporting collectives of researchers and research centres to work on research priorities that are centrally determined by state funding agencies (Bloch and Sorenson ; Smyth ; Sorlin ). Mauthner and Doucet (:972) note the “growing trend and increasing pressure towards undertaking ever‐larger research projects, which are inter‐ or multi‐disciplinary, multi‐institution, multi‐site and international”.…”

Section: “Hidden Colonialism” and The Global Fieldwork Research Assismentioning

confidence: 99%

Subcontracting Academia: Alienation, Exploitation and Disillusionment in theUKOverseas Syrian Refugee Research Industry

2019

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As the political economy of social science research has shifted, subcontracted research assistants have taken over an ever growing part of the research process. In this article, we report on a case study of the experiences of local research assistants employed on UK-directed research projects on Syrian refugees in Lebanon. While refugee research is framed in the UK as a noble project of helping the world's most vulnerable, these assistants speak critically of their sense of alienation, exploitation and disillusionment with the research they work on. Such problems arise, we argue, not just from subcontracted labour relations in the workplace itself, but also the broader political economy of how overseas social science research is currently produced. Addressing these problems requires giving better recognition to the work, interests and concerns of research assistants, but also rethinking and restructuring the global production of A scandal has been brewing in UK universities recently over allegations of international students paying commercial ghostwriters to produce academic coursework for them. Reports in the media claim that international students are four times as likely to cheat as home students; and a boom in the UK for-profit essay writing industry is being driven by a rise in international student numbers (Dean 2016; Mostrous and Kenber 2016). Explanations for why international students choose to pay others to do their university work for them focus on claims of their low level of academic and English language ability, problems of "endemic corruption"

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Section: “Hidden Colonialism” and The Global Fieldwork Research Assismentioning

confidence: 99%

Subcontracting Academia: Alienation, Exploitation and Disillusionment in theUKOverseas Syrian Refugee Research Industry

2019

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“…On one hand, consortia and centres can yield benefits by integrating a variety of perspectives (Bammer, ; Ledford, ). These groups also typically consist of established scientists who are relatively likely to produce high‐quality science (Bloch & Sørensen, ). On the other hand, larger groups can also stifle creativity and tend towards conservatism (Geman & Geman, ), and may actually waste resources if scientifically unnecessary partners are included solely to fulfil funding criteria.…”

Section: Distributions Of Fundsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scientific breakthroughs often occur via outside-the-box thinking, which can be enhanced when a diverse team of researchers works together to solve a specific scientific question or problem (Bammer, 2017;Bromham, Dinnage, & Hua, 2016). For this reason, the funding strategies directed towards so-called excellence centres often involve relatively large pots of money that are granted over substantial periods of time (Bloch & Sørensen, 2015).…”

Section: Integration Of Funding Programmes For Basic and Applied Scmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Science policies: How should science funding be allocated? An evolutionary biologists’ perspective

Meirmans

Butlin

Charmantier

et al. 2019

J of Evolutionary Biology

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In an ideal world, funding agencies could identify the best scientists and projects and provide them with the resources to undertake these projects. Most scientists would agree that in practice, how funding for scientific research is allocated is far from ideal and likely compromises research quality. We, nine evolutionary biologists from different countries and career stages, provide a comparative summary of our impressions on funding strategies for evolutionary biology across eleven different funding agencies. We also assess whether and how funding effectiveness might be improved. We focused this assessment on 14 elements within four broad categories: (a) topical shaping of science, (b) distribution of funds, (c) application and review procedures, and (d) incentives for mobility and diversity. These comparisons revealed striking among‐country variation in those elements, including wide variation in funding rates, the effort and burden required for grant applications, and the extent of emphasis on societal relevance and individual mobility. We use these observations to provide constructive suggestions for the future and urge the need to further gather informed considerations from scientists on the effects of funding policies on science across countries and research fields.

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“…Research funding initiatives aiming for 'excellence' have in the last decade become a common instrument in a number of OECD-countries (Hellström 2018;Cremonini, Horlings, and Hessels 2017;OECD 2014;Aksnes et al 2012;Bloch and Sørensen 2015;Orr, Jaeger, and Wespel 2011). One of these, centres of excellence (CoEs), has especially gained wide-spread attention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

One model fits all? How centres of excellence affect research organisation and practices in the humanities

Borlaug

Langfeldt

2019

Studies in Higher Education

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Centres of Excellence (CoE) have become a common research policy instrument in several OECD countries the last two decades. The CoE schemes are in general modelled on the organisational and research practices in the natural and life sciences. Compared to 'Big science', the humanities have been characterised by more individual research, flat structures, and usually less integration and coordination of research activities. In this article we ask: How does the introduction of CoEs affect the organisation of research and research practices in the humanities? By comparing Norwegian CoEs in different fields of research and studying the specific challenges of the humanities, we find that CoEs increase collaboration between different fields and make disciplinary and organisational boundaries more permeable, but so far they do not substantially alter individual collaboration patterns in the humanities CoEs. They further seem to generate more tensions in their adjacent environments compared to CoEs in other fields.

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The size of research funding: Trends and implications

Cited by 74 publications

References 38 publications

Subcontracting Academia: Alienation, Exploitation and Disillusionment in theUKOverseas Syrian Refugee Research Industry

Subcontracting Academia: Alienation, Exploitation and Disillusionment in theUKOverseas Syrian Refugee Research Industry

Science policies: How should science funding be allocated? An evolutionary biologists’ perspective

One model fits all? How centres of excellence affect research organisation and practices in the humanities

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