Tracing researcher 'funding configurations': Some initial approaches and challenges

Thomas, Duncan A.; Ramos-Vielba, Irene; Aagaard, Kaare

doi:10.31235/osf.io/d4tr8

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…In the application of this exploratory approach, suitable methods may include survey-based characterization of funding instruments and observing configurations at scale. At smaller scale, interviews could be used to gain more nuance, and higher resolution about funding instrument specifications, details of a researcher configuration, use dynamics and instrument interactions (Thomas, Ramos-Vielba and Aagaard 2020). Desk-based research on funding instrument specifications could also characterize key societal targeting dimensions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Societal targeting in researcher funding: An exploratory approach through dimensions and interactions

Ramos-Vielba¹,

Thomas²,

Aagaard³

2021

Preprint

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Shaping public research to enhance its societal contribution has become a key policy concern. Against this background, how research funding may stimulate the societal orientation of scientific research has been underexplored. This paper proposes a two-fold exploratory approach both to characterize and observe societal targeting in individual researcher funding. First, stemming from literature, policy and practices, we select four key societal targeting dimensions: interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, prioritized research problems and user-oriented outputs. All these targeting dimensions of funding can potentially shape both research networks and practices towards societal goals. These dimensions may be identified in context through ex ante specifications of funding instruments, in rules and conditions for funding provision to researchers. Second, we also consider potential interactions of funding instruments, since researchers may engage with various instruments simultaneously when conducting their research. Therefore, each researcher funding configuration at a moment in time may generate bespoke shaping of research, depending on the societal targeting dimensions present and whether funding is co-used to support different research topics and activities within a researcher’s portfolio. The combination of the targeting dimensions and their potential interactions would allow for empirical exploration at different scales and in diverse settings. They expand our understanding of funding use dynamics that might shape research. This systematic perspective on funding instrument characteristics and their configurational possibilities will be relevant to assess the role of funding in research evaluation. We conclude with both policy implications of this exploratory societal targeting approach to funding and suggestions to expand it in further research.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some researchers may be able to continue pursuing their specific research agendas under conditions of scarce funding (Horta and Santos 2020). Others may co-use multiple funding instruments in a highly connected, interdependent fashion (Thomas et al, 2020) or may use their funding independently.…”

Section: Funding Use Dynamics and Potential Instrument Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Societal targeting in researcher funding: An exploratory approach through dimensions and interactions

Ramos-Vielba¹,

Thomas²,

Aagaard³

2021

Preprint

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“…if concurrent funding instruments involve the same academic actors (interdisciplinary collaboration), non-academic stakeholders (transdisciplinarity participation), overlapping prioritized research problems, users or outputs for users. Interactions of this kind, occurring within the instrument mix or funding configuration of instruments a researcher holds (Thomas, Ramos-Vielba and Aagaard 2020;Aagaard et al 2021), could also relate to whether the instruments originate from the same funder or from separate funders, and thus likely have different dimensions societally targeted, and perhaps a wide range of differing degrees.…”

Section: Analytical Challenges For Further Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Societal targeting in researcher funding: An exploratory approach

Ramos-Vielba

Thomas

Aagaard

2022

Research Evaluation

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Shaping public research to enhance its societal contribution has become a key policy concern. Against this background, how research funding may stimulate the societal orientation of scientific research—or how funding is societally targeted—has been underexplored. This article proposes an exploratory approach to characterize societal targeting in individual researcher funding, based on four key societal targeting dimensions: interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, prioritized research problems and user-oriented outputs. All these targeting dimensions of funding can potentially shape both researchers’ research networks and practices towards societal goals. These dimensions can be identified in context by studying ex ante specifications of funding instruments, i.e. rules and conditions for funding provision to researchers. We illustrate the dimensions in various degrees using two real cases of national public research funding. This systematic perspective on funding instrument characteristics then can potentially improve research evaluation, by allowing assessment in more detail of which funding dimensions associate with particular kinds of research ultimately being undertaken.

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“…We argue then these findings warrant such additional explorations. Separate qualitative work on single-author researchers in this dataset has also highlighted variety in reasons for, and mobilizations of co-used funding instruments, see [ 64 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting to the bottom of research funding: Acknowledging the complexity of funding dynamics

et al. 2021

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Research funding is an important factor for public science. Funding may affect which research topics get addressed, and what research outputs are produced. However, funding has often been studied simplistically, using top-down or system-led perspectives. Such approaches often restrict analysis to confined national funding landscapes or single funding organizations and instruments in isolation. This overlooks interlinkages, broader funding researchers might access, and trends of growing funding complexity. This paper instead frames a ‘bottom-up’ approach that analytically distinguishes between increasing levels of aggregation of funding instrument co-use. Funding of research outputs is selected as one way to test this approach, with levels traced via funding acknowledgements (FAs) in papers published 2009–18 by researchers affiliated to Denmark, the Netherlands or Norway, in two test research fields (Food Science, Renewable Energy Research). Three funding aggregation levels are delineated: at the bottom, ‘funding configurations’ of funding instruments co-used by individual researchers (from single-authored papers with two or more FAs); a middle, ‘funding amalgamations’ level, of instruments co-used by collaborating researchers (from multi-authored papers with two or more FAs); and a ‘co-funding network’ of instruments co-used across all researchers active in a research field (all papers with two or more FAs). All three levels are found to include heterogenous funding co-use from inside and outside the test countries. There is also co-funding variety in terms of instrument ‘type’ (public, private, university or non-profit) and ‘origin’ (domestic, foreign or supranational). Limitations of the approach are noted, as well as its applicability for future analyses not using paper FAs to address finer details of research funding dynamics.

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Tracing researcher 'funding configurations': Some initial approaches and challenges

Cited by 3 publications

References 9 publications

Societal targeting in researcher funding: An exploratory approach through dimensions and interactions

Societal targeting in researcher funding: An exploratory approach through dimensions and interactions

Societal targeting in researcher funding: An exploratory approach

Getting to the bottom of research funding: Acknowledging the complexity of funding dynamics

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