The Costs of Competition in Distributing Scarce Research Funds

TL;DR

This paper examines the economic, ethical, and systemic impacts of competitive research funding, highlighting gaps in knowledge and proposing empirical and policy-oriented improvements.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive analysis of the costs and effects of competitive research funding and suggests empirical experiments and data collection to improve funding systems.

Findings

Identifies gaps in understanding of funding decision processes

Highlights economic costs associated with competitive funding

Recommends empirical research and data collection for policy improvement

Abstract

Research funding systems are not isolated systems - they are embedded in a larger scientific system with an enormous influence on the system. This paper aims to analyze the allocation of competitive research funding from different perspectives: How reliable are decision processes for funding? What are the economic costs of competitive funding? How does competition for funds affect doing risky research? How do competitive funding environments affect scientists themselves, and which ethical issues must be considered? We attempt to identify gaps in our knowledge of research funding systems; we propose recommendations for policymakers and funding agencies, including empirical experiments of decision processes and the collection of data on these processes. With our recommendations we hope to contribute to developing improved ways of organizing research funding.