Grant reviewing
The Hard Decisions
29/09/10 02:54 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Funding success rates are down, in part because of the economic downturn, and this has further increased competition for funding and placed more pressure on applicants and reviewers. S. Pelech comments that in his experience, while there has been a steady improvement in the quality of submitted grant applications over the last 25 years, there has also been a concurrent errosion in the quality of grant reviews. He also notes that the growing trend towards funding mega-projects has also resulted in less demonstrated productivity per research dollar invested. Read More...
'Like Insider Trading'
01/04/12 12:28 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Bloggers Proflife Substance, Namnezia and Athene Donald explored the dilemma that arises when reviewing grant proposals or submitted scientific manuscripts can directly influence the research of the reviewer - the inside knowledge might serve as a trigger for independent thought through to being a source of outright theft of the author's ideas. S. Pelech comments that with the thousands of information bytes that we receive daily during readings, viewings, and discourses with others, it is hard to tell when original thoughts truly emerge as opposed to ideas that were forgotten and triggered for remembrance. Creativity in scientific thinking seems to stem from the ability to string diverse ideas together in novel ways that explain observations or reveal previously unappreciated relationships. Read More...
Pity the Poor Fraudster?
19/04/12 14:46 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Brian Deer at the Guardian wondered whether the problem of more research fraud stems from increased misconduct or because other researchers are getting better at catching it? He somewhat sympathized with Peter Francis, who due to the stiff compeption for research support, applied for a grant using fabricated data, was caught by his university, and was investigated by the US Office of Research Integrity. While S. Pelech finds it hard to accept Dr. Francis as a victim of the present system, he comments that Dr. Francis' behaviour does reveal how easily it can be abused. He suggests that a better grant funding system that takes into account the realities of scientific research would be to fund established investigators primarily on the basis of their recent productivity and less so on their ideas. Read More...
'Grantwriter's Agony'
19/02/10 11:37 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Blogger DrugMonkey described how triage of a grant application is typically determined by only three assigned reviewers. S. Pelech comments on the poor success rates of grants and the implications this has on fairness, productivity and innovation. Read More...