Summary

As demands intensify for research to address societal missions or challenges such as climate change, ageing or pandemic preparedness, research funders have developed funding instruments targeted at specific topics. Thise project explores how these targeted funding programmes shape the overall research landscape in comparison to non-targeted programmes. The evidence aims to support policymakers and funders in designing policies, funding instruments and evaluation criteria better able to steer towards intended changes in research landscapes.

Project team

• Vincent Traag, Project lead, CWTS
• Ismael Rafols, Project lead, INGENIO (CSIC-UPV) & CWTS
• Emer Brady, Researcher, CFA, Aarhus University
• Jesper Schneider, CFA, Aarhus University
• Jens Peter Andersen, CFA, Aarhus University

Partner organisations

• Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
• Research Council of Norway (RCN)
• Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF)
• Dutch Research Council (NWO)

The project in detail

In the face of increasing policy demands for science to help in addressing societal challenges and problems such as climate change, technological risks or health conditions, funders have set up programmes targeting issues of special societal relevance which are perceived as deserving more research efforts.

However, there is little evidence on the relative benefits of targeted funding (i.e. where the policymakers propose the topic) in comparison to response mode funding (i.e. where the researchers identify and choose the topic). This project focuses on the analysis of the effects of targeted programmes in the research landscape. 

We compare publications of the Principal Investigators (PIs) of targeted programmes, with those of non-targeted programmes and with the national and international trends. Do these targeted funding calls produce a sustained shift in research landscapes towards the desired directions? Is there a mid- or long-term shift in the research focus of the awarded PIs? Are these shifts aligned with the goal of the funding programmes? Is there a spillover effect inat other funding programmesschemes or in at the national trends? In other words, can we also observe shifts in the topics for non-targeted programmes or in the national research landscape?

Thise project develops methodologies for research funding landscape analyses that can also be extended and applied to a variety of questions in research funding. For example, as shown in the image, the project uses research landscape analysis based on a fine-grained CWTS classification system with over 4,000 epistemic categories representing research topics. 

Overall, we aim to produce evidence that helps funders in designing, implementing and improving targeted R&D programmes towards making a positive difference in how science addresses societal challenges.

Image: Position in the global research landscape of the publications associated with the National Research Programme “Sustainable Water Management” (NRP 61), from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). 

Project timeline

The project runs from September 2023 to November 2025.

Outputs

It will produce a RoRI working paper, a journal article, as well as blog posts and presentations for funders and at international conferences such as Metascience 2025.