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Australian Budget Delivers for Science Facilities and Medical Research

Australian Budget Delivers for Science Facilities and Medical Research

Research facilities and medicine were among the winners for science in Australia's 2018/19 national budget. The government will push to invest almost Aus$1.9 billion (US$1.4 billion) over the next 12 years in shared research infrastructure. Scientists welcome relative windfall after years of stagnating funds.

Funding for Fundamental Research Is Under Threat

Funding for Fundamental Research Is Under Threat

The US now faces a dilemma over the future of this national achievement and the supporting arrangements making it sustainable. The ‘social contract’ for science and research now looks more tentative than at any time since the Space Race.

Grants R Us: What’s in the Budget for Research?

Grants R Us: What’s in the Budget for Research?

A Commission factsheet puts the R&I total at €114.8 billion from 2021-2027 – or just about 10 percent of the overall EU budget. But even that number leaves out many other research activities scattered around the Commission.

European Commission Proposes EUR100B for Research Programme

European Commission Proposes EUR100B for Research Programme

The European Commission outlined a €100 billion budget for its new research programme, running between 2021 and 2027. The figure includes €97.6 billion for Horizon Europe, that’s an increase of almost 30%.

Federal Partners Release Interagency Strategic Plan for Microbiome Research

Federal Partners Release Interagency Strategic Plan for Microbiome Research

A group of 23 U.S. government agencies, including the NSF, have joined to produce the Interagency Strategic Plan for Microbiome Research, which outlines the objectives, structure and principles for coordinated research in this important field of study.

Scientists' Early Grant Success Fuels Further Funding

Scientists' Early Grant Success Fuels Further Funding

A new paper suggests that positive feedback in funding may be a key mechanism through which money is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few extremely successful scholars, but also that the origins of emergent distinction in scientists' careers may be of an arbitrary nature.

The Matthew Effect in Science Funding

The Matthew Effect in Science Funding

Article suggesting that positive feedback in funding may be a key mechanism through which money is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few extremely successful scholars, but also that the origins of emergent distinction in scientists' careers may be of an arbitrary nature.  (The article is closed access and requires a subscription to view the full text legally.)

Peer Review Processes Risk Stifling Creativity and Limiting Opportunities for Game-Changing Scientific Discoveries

Peer Review Processes Risk Stifling Creativity and Limiting Opportunities for Game-Changing Scientific Discoveries

Obviously peer review should not be abandoned entirely, but it is time to recognise the need for a separate category of highly innovative research with appropriate funding.

Results of the FP7 Post-Grant Open Access Pilot

Results of the FP7 Post-Grant Open Access Pilot

For a period of almost 3 years, the OpenAIRE2020 project has run - on behalf of the European Commission - a pilot to fund post-grant Open Access publication of research outputs arising from projects financed under the 7th Framework Programme (FP7).

Is Science Hitting a Wall?

Economists show increased research efforts are yielding decreasing returns. Too much innovation veneration! One driver of the replication crisis is our culture’s growing obsession with “innovation.” As technology historians Lee Vinsel and Andrew Russell state in their influential Aeon essay Hail the Maintainers: “Entire societies have come to talk about innovation as if it were an inherently desirable value."

Contest Models Highlight Inefficiencies of Scientific Funding

Contest Models Highlight Inefficiencies of Scientific Funding

The effort researchers waste in writing proposals may be comparable to the total scientific value of the additional funding, especially when only a small percentage of proposals are funded.

Philanthropists, Nonprofit Executives And Board Members Must Awaken To The Dawn Of The Impact Era

Philanthropists, Nonprofit Executives And Board Members Must Awaken To The Dawn Of The Impact Era

We are entering a new era - the Impact Era - where increasingly philanthropists are grounding their generosity in decisions focused on having a real social impact. And, in response, nonprofit organizations are learning to refocus their strategies to maximize that impact.

Changes Arise for Industry and Non-EU Roles in FP9

Changes Arise for Industry and Non-EU Roles in FP9

The EU’s next R&D funding programme might provide more diffuse support for industry and be more open to non-EU countries, a document apparently leaked from the European Commission suggests.

From Babies' Brains to Bacterial Warfare: ERC Invests €650 Million in Ground-Breaking Research

From Babies' Brains to Bacterial Warfare: ERC Invests €650 Million in Ground-Breaking Research

The announcement of ERC Advanced Grants, worth a total of €653 million, benefiting 269 senior researchers across Europe. 

NIH Rejected Study of Alcohol Advertising While Pursuing Industry Funding

NIH Rejected Study of Alcohol Advertising While Pursuing Industry Funding

"This will NOT happen again," an NIH official promised an alcohol industry lobbyist in an email, referring to a study linking marketing to underage drinking.

Trump, Congress Approve Largest U.S. Research Spending Increase in a Decade

Trump, Congress Approve Largest U.S. Research Spending Increase in a Decade

President Donald Trump today signed into law a $1.3 trillion spending package that largely rejects deep cuts to research agencies proposed by the White House and, in many cases, provides substantial increases.

Double Investment in Research, Innovation and Education to Boost Europe's Competitiveness and Sustainability

Double Investment in Research, Innovation and Education to Boost Europe's Competitiveness and Sustainability

13 European associations of universities release a statement in which they call upon the EU institutions to double the investment in research, innovation and education, in the next Multi-Annual Financial Framework.