Research Funding Agencies Are Redefining Science. Early Career Researchers Will Have to Adapt.

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) - young investigators in training and new principal investigators - who have a shorter track record and are dependent on funding to establish their academic career. The low number of career development awards and the lack of sustained research funding results in the loss of ECR talent in academia. Several steps in the current funding process, from grant conditions to the review process, play significant roles in the distribution of funds. Furthermore, there is an imbalance among certain research disciplines and labs of influential researchers that receive more funding. As a group of ECRs with global representation, we examined funding practices, barriers, facilitators, and alternatives to the current funding systems to diversify risk or award grants on a partly random basis. Based on our discussions, research, and collective opinions, 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.

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Towards inclusive funding practices for early career researchers

Journal of Science Policy & Governance ◽

10.38126/jspg180105 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (01) ◽

Author(s):

Charlotte M. de Winde ◽

Sarvenaz Sarabipour ◽

Hugo Carignano ◽

Sejal Davla ◽

David Eccles ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Research Funding ◽

Early Career ◽

Success Rates ◽

New Principal ◽

Early Career Researchers ◽

Track Record ◽

Funding Agencies ◽

Global Representation ◽

Funding Success ◽

Funding Distribution

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.

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Mitigating the impact of conference and travel cancellations on researchers’ futures

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.57032 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Tracey Weissgerber ◽

Yaw Bediako ◽

Charlotte M de Winde ◽

Hedyeh Ebrahimi ◽

Florencia Fernández-Chiappe ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Working Conditions ◽

Research Funding ◽

Scientific Community ◽

Unintended Consequences ◽

Early Career ◽

Early Career Researchers ◽

The Impact ◽

Do So

The need to protect public health during the current COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated conference cancellations on an unprecedented scale. As the scientific community adapts to new working conditions, it is important to recognize that some of our actions may disproportionately affect early-career researchers and scientists from countries with limited research funding. We encourage all conference organizers, funders and institutions who are able to do so to consider how they can mitigate the unintended consequences of conference and travel cancellations and we provide seven recommendations for how this could be achieved. The proposed solutions may also offer long-term benefits for those who normally cannot attend conferences, and thus lead to a more equitable future for generations of researchers.

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Empowering Early Career Researchers to Improve Science

10.31219/osf.io/p5evw ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Brianne A Kent ◽

Constance Holman ◽

Emmanuella Amoako ◽

Alberto Antonietti ◽

JAMES MBA Azam ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Research Funding ◽

Systemic Change ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Early Career ◽

Research Culture ◽

Extensive Experience ◽

Early Career Researchers ◽

Communication Of Science ◽

Scientific System

Early career researchers (ECRs) are important stakeholders leading efforts to catalyze systemic change in the conduct and communication of science. Here, we summarize the outputs from a virtual unconventional conference (unconference), which brought together 54 invited experts from 20 countries with extensive experience in ECR initiatives designed to improve science. The event was focused on why ECRs are needed to improve science and the obstacles they face when trying to promote reform. Our discussions also highlighted the additional obstacles that ECRs in countries with limited research funding experience when working to improve the scientific system. We provide the lessons learned from successful ECR-led or ECR-focused initiatives and outline actions that individuals and organizations can take to further support ECRs who are working to improve research culture and practice.

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Challenges of Early Career Researchers in Africa

10.31234/osf.io/zufd7 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Tijjani Salihu Shinkafi

Keyword(s):

Early Stage ◽

Active Phase ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Government Funding ◽

Career Progression ◽

Early Career ◽

Early Career Researchers ◽

Research Institutes ◽

Funding Agencies ◽

The World

Early career researchers (ECRs) are those researchers or academics (having not more than 8 years post PhD experience) at a very early stage which is the most active phase of research following the award of PhD. African universities have a fewer number of researchers with PhD in the world. Most universities have challenges of funding that could not allow the researchers to carry out research effectively. This necessitates for foreign training. Some government funding agencies such as Tetfund and PTDF in Nigeria provide the opportunity to Nigerian researchers to travel to other countries to conduct research leading to the award of PhD. Some other category of researchers remains within the continent or in their country to pursue their PhD degree. When these PhD holders are recruited (Early Career Researchers) to teach and conduct research in Africa they face a number of challenges. The major difficulties that are peculiar to ECRs in Africa are lack of mentorship, funding, laboratory space in addition to other ones that ECRs of developed countries experience such as lack of getting enough time for research, publishing and career progression. Provision should, therefore, be made to support these ECRs to become fully established after completing the PhD otherwise the purpose of the training (PhD) will not be achieved if the scholars ran away from the universities or research institutes.

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Creating a Diamond Open Access community journal for Seismology and Earthquake Science

10.31223/x5304v ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Martijn van den Ende ◽

Lucile Bruhat ◽

Gareth Funning ◽

Alice-Agnes Gabriel ◽

Stephen Hicks ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Developing Countries ◽

Open Access ◽

Earth Science ◽

Task Force ◽

Early Career ◽

Nature Publishing Group ◽

Early Career Researchers ◽

Funding Agencies ◽

Publishing Group ◽

Earthquake Science

On 24 November 2020, the Springer Nature publishing group announced the introduction of Open Access (OA) articles in Nature and its sibling journals. The corresponding OA publication fee (charged directly to the authors) was set to €9,500/$11,390/£8,290, an amount that may be well out of reach for many researchers. This is especially a problem for researchers in developing countries, early-career researchers on small, personal fellowships, and researchers between positions. Employers and funding agencies are increasingly requiring that research be published under an OA license, forcing authors to accept the high publication fees, who are not always financially supported.The high cost of these and similar OA fees for other Earth Science journals prompted a discussion among the seismological community on Twitter, during which the idea was raised to start a free-to-publish, free-to-read journal for seismological research. The concept of Diamond Open Access was already adopted by Volcanica (www.jvolcanica.org) for volcanological research, providing a precedent and motivation for similar initiatives (like Seismica, but also Tektonika for the structural geology community). Following community discussions on Slack with over 100 participants, a small “task force” was formed to investigate in detail the possibility of starting a Diamond OA seismology journal, adopting Volcanica as a model. Here we detail the results of the exploration performed by the task force, with the aim of synthesizing a set of key requirements and corresponding actions to launch a Diamond OA journal in seismology and earthquake science, including scope definition, community engagement, and partnership with a library or other institutions. This document presents ideas and discussions while starting Seismica from November 2020 to July 2021, which may serve as a guideline but might not reflect the final stage of Seismica.

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The Seismica initiative: a community-led Diamond Open Access journal for seismological research

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-2519 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Martijn van den Ende ◽

Lucile Bruhat ◽

Gareth Funning ◽

Alice-Agnes Gabriel ◽

Stephen Hicks ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Open Access ◽

Earth Science ◽

Task Force ◽

Open Access Journal ◽

Early Career ◽

Financial Barriers ◽

Nature Publishing Group ◽

Early Career Researchers ◽

Funding Agencies ◽

Publishing Group

<p>On 24 November 2020, the Springer Nature publishing group announced the introduction of Open Access (OA) journals in Nature and its sibling journals. The corresponding OA publication fee (charged directly to the authors) was set to &#8364;9,500/$11,390/&#163;8,290, an amount that may be well out of reach for researchers with limited financial means. This is especially a problem for researchers in developing countries, and for early-career researchers on small, personal fellowships. Funding agencies often demand that research be published under an OA license, forcing authors to accept the high publication fees.</p><p>The high cost of these and similar OA fees for other Earth science journals prompted a discussion among the seismological community on Twitter, during which the idea was raised to start a free-to-publish, free-to-read journal for seismological research. The concept of Diamond Open Access was previously adopted by Volcanica (www.jvolcanica.org) for volcanological research, providing a precedent and directives for similar initiatives (like Seismica, but also Tektonika for the structural geology community). Following the community discussion on Slack with over 100 participants, a small "task force" was formed to investigate in detail the possibility of starting a Diamond OA seismology journal, taking Volcanica as a model. In this contribution, we report the progress that has been made by the task force and the seismological community in the conceptualisation of the journal, and the steps that remain to be taken. Once the initiation of the journal is completed, Seismica will offer a platform for researchers to publish and access peer-reviewed work with no financial barriers, promoting seismological research in an inclusive manner. We invite all interested members of the seismological and earthquake community to participate in the discussions and development of this OA journal, by contacting the authors listed on this abstract.</p>

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