Towards inclusive funding practices for early career researchers

Abstract

Securing research funding is a challenge faced by most scientists in academic institutions worldwide. Funding success rates for all career stages are low, but the burden falls most heavily on early career researchers (ECRs). These are young investigators in training and new principal investigators who have a shorter track record. ECRs are dependent on funding to establish their academic careers. The low number of career development awards and the lack of sustained research funding result in the loss of ECR talent in academia. Several steps in the current funding process, from grant conditions to review, play significant roles in the distribution of funds. Furthermore, there is an imbalance where certain research disciplines and labs of influential researchers receive more funding. As a group of ECRs with global representation, we examined funding practices, barriers, and facilitators to the current funding systems. We also identified alternatives to the most common funding distribution practices, such as diversifying risk or awarding grants on a partly random basis. Here, we detail recommendations for funding agencies and grant reviewers to improve ECR funding prospects worldwide and promote a fairer and more inclusive funding landscape for ECRs.

“I Am in a Privileged Situation”: Examining the Factors Promoting Inequity in Open Access Publishing

“…This means that the cost of APCs of many hybrid journals has made OA publishing inequitable to researchers who do not have funding for paying the associated fees. As funding is limited in the HSS disciplines compared to the STEM fields (de Winde et al, 2020; Eve, 2015), OA publishing has remained inaccessible to many participants. This is common among participants in their early career years, who cannot afford the cost of APCs.…”

“…Several limitations to researchers' engagement in OA publishing have been reported in literature. Apart from the resistance from researchers to publish OA or self‐archive (Cullen & Chawner, 2011; Dlamini & Snyman, 2017), some studies have also identified other factors such as disciplinary differences (Laakso & Björk, 2021; Larivière & Sugimoto, 2018: Severin, Egger, Paul, & Hürlimann, 2020; Suber, 2017), career stage and requirements for career advancements (Nicholas et al, 2020) and limited funding opportunities (de Winde et al, 2020; Eve, 2015). Recently, equity in scholarly communication has received attention from researchers.…”

Challenges that Early Career Researchers Face in Academic Research and Publishing

“…Exchanges 2021 9(1), pp. 77-106 for senior researchers tends to be many-fold higher than that for ECRs (Daniels, 2015;de Winde et al, 2021). Since funding drives and sustains research advancement, the lack of funding or the disproportionality of funding is one of ECRs' greatest preoccupations and sources of stress (de Winde et al, 2021).…”

“…77-106 for senior researchers tends to be many-fold higher than that for ECRs (Daniels, 2015;de Winde et al, 2021). Since funding drives and sustains research advancement, the lack of funding or the disproportionality of funding is one of ECRs' greatest preoccupations and sources of stress (de Winde et al, 2021). ECRs also contribute to the reputational advancement of institutes of higher education, but their efforts are often unrecognised and relegated to the shadows, while credit is assigned to their supervisors (Hallinger, 2018).…”