How can 'societally-targeted research funding' shape research networks and practices?

The preliminary results suggest a number of insights that can contribute towards a more systematic and comparable understanding of funding shaping across contexts, and will be valuable for policymakers, research funders, research evaluators, and scholars. Some PIs do not report remarkable changes in the way they considered their networks and practices after the studied funded project. Most PIs in the sample were previously active in both basic research and collaborative research with industry partners. They express an ambition to pursue societal goals with their research and actively seek to build relationships with nonacademic stakeholders. Without opportunities for societally targeted funding, the academic-industry collaborations would not have been possible according for most PIs. However, the preliminary results and indicated changes in some cases reveal intertwined funding research which also contributes to a shaping and research learning process (e.g. trial/error problem-solving techniques, cumulative tacit knowledge). The changes include incorporating new academic and nonacademic partners into their research networks, or addressing a wide range of collaboration challenges. With respect to research practices, scientific researchers seem to accomodate participants’ diverse interests while navigating funding requirements, research needs and societal goals. We also expect the study to yield a number of policy implications, suggesting potential advances in design, provision, monitoring or evaluation of funding and research, informed by real-world funded research contexts and dynamics.