Bias in Research Grant Evaluation Has Dire Consequences for Small Universities.

ABSTRACT: Federal funding for basic scientific research is the cornerstone of societal progress, economy, health and well-being. There is a direct relationship between financial investment in science and a nation's scientific discoveries, making it a priority for governments to distribute public funding appropriately in support of the best science. However, research grant proposal success rate and funding level can be skewed toward certain groups of applicants, and such skew may be driven by systemic bias arising during grant proposal evaluation and scoring. Policies to best redress this problem are not well established. Here, we show that funding success and grant amounts for applications to Canada's Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Grant program (2011-2014) are c

SUBMITTER: Murray DL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4892638 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature