Winning over funders through open science

Description

EARMA 2021 Conference: Experts explain why embedding open science in grant proposals reaps rewards

Subject

Science funders are slowly dismantling the barriers that prevent research outputs from being disseminated beyond the pages of subscription journals. While many researchers welcome this direction of travel, it also has implications for winning funding.

With various funders taking steps to ensure that content is made freely available online, they are increasingly turning the magnifying glass on researchers, looking for evidence that academics are working to ensure their outputs have an impact in the wider world.

Speaking at the annual conference of the European Association of Research Managers and Administrators on 16 April, researchers Ivo Grigorov and Romain Féret outlined the benefits of embedding open science in research funding applications from the get-go.

They argued that including dissemination and communication plans throughout a project, as well as open data, not only helped projects in the long run by making them more widely accessible but could also help win over funders.