Could Distributed Peer Review Better Decide Grant Funding?
The landscape of academic grant funding is notoriously competitive and plagued by lengthy, bureaucratic processes, exacerbated by difficulties in finding willing reviewers. Distributed […]
There’s Life Beyond STEM: A Plea from Australia
Academia has long recognized that wicked problems require cross-disciplinary research approaches, yet Australia’s Science and Research Priorities enthrall mainly STEM researchers. This divide puts academia back into silos: those on the sunny side of funding decisions and those under a constant rain cloud.
Prewitt: Good Science Will Always Find Its Use
In receiving the SAGE-CASBS Award, Ken Prewitt, a champion for scholarly knowledge, suggests there is no applied or basic science, only science in use and science soon to be used.
The National Interest and the NSF
Current legislation calls for federally funded science to be in the ‘national interest.’ What does that even mean, and why do scientists fear this Republican-led effort?
Bill That Seeks ‘National Interest’ Justifications for NSF Grants Advances
A bill that would require the National Science Foundation to justify, in writing, that every grant it makes is in the national interest and “worthy of federal funding” passed the science committee of the U.S. House of Representatives this morning.
Japan’s Ministry of Education Downsizing the Liberal Arts?
Have japan’s national universities been ordered — or coerced — into dismantling their humanities and social science programs or not? Jeff Kingston of Temple University Japan walks us through an answer tangled up in patriotism, politics and the nation’s ailing academy.
Shutdowns: The Misfire Next Time
Although a U.S. government shutdown has apparently been kicked down the road just a little bit longer, but a potential new shutdown — and its ruinous consequences for grant-funded science –always seems to be just around the corner.
Fairer Funding in Social Sciences Masks Gender Imbalance
Even when the news is good — women win grants from the ESRC at the same rate as men, and those grants are actually a bit larger on average — it’s tinged with bad — because there are so few senior women in academic social sciences men still get majority of the money.
Honoring High Achievements in ‘Hypsographic Demography’
Two decades ago two curious scientists from very different fields wondered how many people live at various altitudes. Aided by federal funding, their inquiries have helped in area ranging from disaster preparedness to cancer research to fresher snack foods. Now the duo have been honored with a Golden Goose Award.
