Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Ayoubi, Charles
Author-Email: charles.ayoubi@epfl.ch
Author-Workplace-Name: EPFL - Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
Author-Name: Barbosu, Sandra
Author-Email: barbosu@sloan.org
Author-Workplace-Name: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Author-Name: Pezzoni, Michele
Author-Email: michele.pezzoni@unice.fr
Author-Workplace-Name: Université Côte d’Azur/CNRS/GREDEG, Nice, OST-HCERES, Paris,
	 and ICRIOS, Bocconi University, Milan
Author-Name: Visentin, Fabiana
Author-Email: visentin@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University
Title: What matters in funding: The value of research coherence and alignment in 
	 evaluators' decisions
Abstract: Entrepreneurs, managers, and scientists participate in competitive 
	 selection processes to obtain resources. The project they propose is a 
	 crucial aspect of their success. In this paper, we focus on the 
	 selection of scientists applying for academic funding by submitting a 
	 research proposal. We argue that two core dimensions of the research 
	 proposal affect the probability of funding success: its coherence with 
	 the applicant's previous work, and its alignment with subjects of 
	 general interest for the scientific community. Employing a neural 
	 network algorithm, we analyse the text of 2,494 research proposals for a 
	 prestigious fellowship awarded to promising early-stage North American 
	 researchers. We find field-specific heterogeneity in the committees' 
	 evaluations. In life sciences and chemistry, evaluators value the 
	 research proposal's coherence positively with the scientist's recent 
	 work and the proposals' alignment with the current subject of general 
	 interest for the scientific community. Conversely, in physics, 
	 evaluators give more weight to bibliometric indicators and less to the 
	 proposal coherence and alignment. Our results can be extended beyond the 
	 academic context to managerial implications in cases such as 
	 entrepreneurs and managers submitting project proposals to investors
Classification-JEL: I23, O32, O38
Keywords: Research trajectories, research funding, coherence, alignment
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 20200324
Number: 2020-010
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2020/wp2020-010.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2020010