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Majority of research funding goes to minority of institutions
71 per cent went to 31 universities because of 'narrowed' definitions of excellence
'Publish or perish' diminishing scientific returns
"The future of science (& humanity) isn't about funding, it's about supporting scientists to take risks once again."
How to better allocate research money and fix a flawed system
Research funding will continue to be haphazard if an anecdotal approach continues to be taken. by Julia Lane
NIH institute considers broad shift to ‘people’ awards
Fund people, not projects. The NIH is now encouraging its 27 institutes and centers to launch their own people awards.
Opening up research proposals
An open research proposal calling for open research proposals and funding transparency.
Mapping biomedical research in the USA
America is a leader in funding for biomedical research, from government, industry, and the non-profit sector. And, for such a large country, the research community is remarkably spread out, with high-quality work being done in every region of the nation.
Competitive funding, citation regimes, and the diminishment of breakthrough research
Competitive funding, citation regimes, and the diminishment of breakthrough research
Highly fragmented and competitive system can undermine efforts to foster groundbreaking research.
Could crowdfunding rejuvenate science?
Ben McNeil, founder of thinkable.org, thinks our science funding mechanism is fundamentally broken. Here's why, and what he thinks we should do about it.
A Longitude Prize for the twenty-first century
The UK Government’s new prize for substantial innovation to address pressing societal problems should be welcomed, says Martin Rees.
Alternative modes of research funding: exceptions or growing trend?
Peer-review of projects dominates when it comes to decision on how to allocate funding for science. But is it really the best way?
This is important. You have £5.8 billion to spend on science things
How this money is invested could make a huge difference to our future, in the UK and to some extent beyond
Tobacco industry-funded research, peer review, and nannying
Aside from the occasional cigar (once every five years or so), I'm one of those smug "never smoked" gits. You then might think that I'm all for plain packaging, not publishing tobacco industry-funded research, and completely against the " normalization" of smoking via the evidently evil medium of e-cigarettes.
'Philanthropy Is no substitute for government funding'
There has been an upsurge in philanthropy for scientific research by America's billionaires. Still, in size and scope, philanthropy pales in comparison to public financing for science.
Computing a winner, fusion a loser in U.S. science budget
Follow our coverage of the 2015 budget request to Congress
Researchers propose alternative way to allocate science funding
1. Give all scientists an annual, unconditional fixed amount of funding to conduct their research. 2. All funded scientists are obliged to donate a fixed percentage of all of the funding that they previously received to other researchers: the funding circulates through the community, converging on researchers that are expected to make the best use of it.
A new funding model for scientists
What scientist hasn’t dreamed of spending less time getting funding and more time doing research?
US science agencies get some relief in 2014 budget
Physical science wins bigger increases than biomedical research.
Collective allocation of science funding: from funding agencies to scientific agency
Collective allocation of science funding: from funding agencies to scientific agency
The NSF and the NIH award tens of billions of dollars in annual science funding. How can this money be distributed as efficiently as possible to best promote scientific innovation and productivity?
Global R&D funding 2014 forecast
Battelle and R&D Magazine jointly released the 2014 Global R&D Funding Forecast indicating that the combination of private and public global R&D spending was flat for 2013.
Are research sandpits a good way to allocate public funding to research?
The EPSRC allocates millions to fund research at residential workshops.
NIH to experiment with high-risk grants
NIH considers supporting more individual researchers rather than projects.
DFG richtet neun weitere Sonderforschungsbereiche ein
Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) richtet neun weitere Sonderforschungsbereiche (SFB) ein.
What's so special about science? (And how much should we spend on it?)
Presidential address on why society is willing to support an endeavor as abstract and altruistic as basic scientific research and an enterprise as large and practical as the R&D enterprise as a whole.
The end of written grant applications: Let's use a formula
Hours spent writing grant applications could be spent actually doing research with a grant-determining formula.
White House unveils big data projects, round two
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and Networking and Information Technology R&D program (NITRD) on Tuesday introduced a slew of new big-data collaboration projects aimed at stimulating private-sector interest in federal data.
Large NIH projects cut
Big science is under big pressure at the NIH. Gone are the glory days of the early 2000s, when a doubling of the agency's budget over five years allowed it to establish dozens of programmes with their own large, dedicated budgets.
Why research assessment is out of control
Universities and academics cannot live without the Research Excellence Framework, but we need to go back to a simpler form of measurement, argues Peter Scott
Does UK science have a fetish for the short-term?
Many of the biggest problems in science are tackled through sustained efforts over years or decades. But if science is a long-term endeavour, why are funding and careers so fixated on the now? Guest post by Andrew Holding.
Spanish science still suffering
Despite Friday's €70m rescue of the Spanish National Research Council, Spain's scientists are still in mourning. Amaya Moro Martín sets the scene as a range of commentators identify the challenges still facing Spanish science