A manifesto for fair and equitable research funding in ecology

By

Winder, Linton
Hodge, Simon

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2017-12-29

Original Publication

One ecosystem : ecology and sustainability data journal

Volume

2

Pages

47--56

Subjects

ballot , bias , fairness , funding , grants , lottery , Research

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/rethinkingecology.2.21798

 

Abstract

The way in which research funding is allocated by both governmental and non-governmental research agencies needs to be revamped to avoid bias and encourage innovation. Known biases in allocation of funding include those driven by gender, race, institution size, geographic location and interdisciplinary study. We also contend that the peer-review process itself provides an apparently fair process, but that the flaws within it work against funding innovative science. We propose an unbiased process that combines the use of short proposals, blinded review and a lottery to allocate funding.