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How much would each researcher receive if competitive government research funding were distributed equally among researchers?
- Source :
- PLoS ONE, PLoS ONE, 12(9), e0183967, PLoS ONE, 12(9):e0183967, 1-11. Public Library of Science, PLoS ONE, Vol 12, Iss 9, p e0183967 (2017)
- Publication Year :
- 2017
-
Abstract
- Scientists are increasingly dissatisfied with funding systems that rely on peer assessment and, accordingly, have suggested several proposals for reform. One of these proposals is to distribute available funds equally among all qualified researchers, with no interference from peer review. Despite its numerous benefits, such egalitarian sharing faces the objection, among others, that it would lead to an unacceptable dilution of resources. The aim of the present paper is to assess this particular objection. We estimate (for the Netherlands, the U.S. and the U.K.) how much researchers would receive were they to get an equal share of the government budgets that are currently allocated through competitive peer assessment. For the Netherlands, we furthermore estimate what researchers would receive were we to differentiate between researchers working in low-cost, intermediate-cost and high-cost disciplines. Given these estimates, we then determine what researchers could afford in terms of PhD students, Postdocs, travel and equipment. According to our results, researchers could, on average, maintain current PhD student and Postdoc employment levels, and still have at their disposal a moderate (the U.K.) to considerable (the Netherlands, U.S.) budget for travel and equipment. This suggests that the worry that egalitarian sharing leads to unacceptable dilution of resources is unjustified. Indeed, our results strongly suggest that there is room for far more egalitarian distribution of funds than happens in the highly competitive funding schemes so prevalent today.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
Budgets
Financing, Government
Financial Management
Economics
Distribution (economics)
lcsh:Medicine
Social Sciences
Geographical Locations
Salaries
Medicine and Health Sciences
Marketing
lcsh:Science
Netherlands
Multidisciplinary
05 social sciences
Health services research
Research Assessment
Research Personnel
Europe
Peer assessment
Government
Engineering and Technology
Health Services Research
Financing
Phd students
Research Article
Science Policy
Research Grants
Equipment
050905 science studies
Research and Analysis Methods
Research Funding
03 medical and health sciences
business.industry
Research/economics
Research
lcsh:R
United Kingdom
United States
Health Care
030104 developmental biology
Labor Economics
People and Places
lcsh:Q
0509 other social sciences
business
Finance
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Volume :
- 12
- Issue :
- 9
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLoS ONE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....6c7e06b890bb850065b30b14674877e1