Do grant proposal texts matter for funding decisions? A field experiment

Müge Simsek (), Mathijs Vaan and Arnout Rijt
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Müge Simsek: University of Amsterdam
Mathijs Vaan: University of California, Berkeley
Arnout Rijt: European University Institute

Scientometrics, 2024, vol. 129, issue 5, No 2, 2532 pages

Abstract: Abstract Scientists and funding agencies invest considerable resources in writing and evaluating grant proposals. But do grant proposal texts noticeably change panel decisions in single blind review? We report on a field experiment conducted by The Dutch Research Council (NWO) in collaboration with the authors in an early-career competition for awards of 800,000 euros of research funding. A random half of panelists were shown a CV and only a one-paragraph summary of the proposed research, while the other half were shown a CV and a full proposal. We find that withholding proposal texts from panelists did not detectibly impact their proposal rankings. This result suggests that the resources devoted to writing and evaluating grant proposals may not have their intended effect of facilitating the selection of the most promising science.

Keywords: Peer review; Research funding; Grant proposal; Science policy; Matthew effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-024-04968-7

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