Creating an open, searchable database of funding opportunities for researchers
UPDATE (August 2018)
This project has lapsed. A similar project has instead been initiated and is in process by a group of eLife ambassadors, including Aziz Khan, Lotte de Winde, Dieter Lukas and Juan Quintana.
Their focus is on postdoctoral funding opportunities and their current lists are:
Through these sites, you can submit opportunities that are missing from the list via the 'Submit ..' form.
This project was initiated at OpenCon2016 via an unconference session involving:
The session description was: One of the biggest detractors from open science is the pressure to conform to the real or perceived requirements of funders and employers. The research evaluators are the gatekeepers of research careers, and poor evaluation practises stifle the progress of early-career researchers. We all need an income to support our work. Are the funding opportunities for research really open to all? Are we losing good researchers who refuse to take part in the publication race? People already make spreadsheets about the grants they are considering, and there are some primitive databases out there already. Opening up this data and enriching it with the experience of applicants and interviewees has the potential to open access to revenue streams, to empower individuals to take control of their research direction and values, and to provide a mechanism to highlight funders who recognise and reward open science practises. Join me to discuss the basis for this proposal and next steps for making it a reality. ###
The aim is to create a database of funding opportunities, which can be searched by criteria such as career stage, location, citizenship, field of study. Such a tool has the potential to include names of awardees, and advice from previous applicants/interviewees/awardees/administrators for prospective applicants. Funding schemes in which applicants are evaluated according to responsible research behaviours and broad impact, as opposed to only publication list and Impact Factor, could be highlighted.
Note: the eLife early-career advisors (2015) provided the initial idea for a resource to highlight available funding sources for postdocs in the life sciences. During the unconference, it was agreed that the database need not be limited by career stage or field. Full notes of the unconference, taken by Gary McDowell, are included in this repository.
The team chat via a Slack channel. If you would like to be added, please contact Naomi (n.penfold /at/ elifesciences.org or @npscience).
First steps: