Searching for funding is a ‘heavy burden’ for academics and research offices alike, survey finds
Finding different sources of funding income is a growing priority for “under pressure” research office staff, a survey has revealed.
Carried out by research agency Alterline on behalf of the higher education software and services provider ExLibris, part of Clarivate*, the survey reveals that establishing more varied sources of research income is “becoming much more important” for research offices.
The survey finds that 37 per cent of research office leaders feel that diversifying income is a priority in 2022, up from 29 per cent in 2021 and 25 per cent in 2020. At the same time, the proportion of those saying that securing more funding for research is a priority fell to 54 per cent, down from 66 per cent in 2021 and 68 per cent in 2020.
‘Heavy burden on researchers’
According to the report’s authors, the change in priorities may reflect the level of support researchers are receiving to find and apply for funding.
More than 80 per cent of researchers say they look for funding opportunities and apply for grants by themselves, while the proportion of researchers receiving support from their research office had fallen from 54 per cent in 2021 to 49 per cent in 2022—although this was still higher than the 45 per cent recorded in 2020.
Fifty-two per cent of researchers say that finding opportunities is difficult, according to the survey, and senior research office staff feel it is one of the biggest issues they face.
“The challenge of finding research funding is experienced by all,” the authors wrote. “This is a heavy burden on both researchers and the research office, who are already under pressure due to limited resources and budgets, decreasing staff numbers, and challenges with data systems and silos.”
‘Greater levels of support needed’
The survey, which will be published in full on 31 October, included 100 senior members of research offices and 300 researchers across the US, UK and Australia.
The results also show that applying for funding “appears to account for a large proportion” of researchers’ “high” levels of administrative burden, as well as the need to meet “increasingly demanding open-access requirements”.
While 61 per cent of researchers said they needed to publish their datasets open access in 2020, this rose to 82 per cent in 2022.
The report’s authors warned that while “much greater levels of support are needed” for researchers “to substantially reduce their workload,” research office leaders reported that “limited resources, lack of time and budget restrictions are the biggest challenges for them and this creates difficulties supporting time-poor researchers”.
Download a copy of the full report here
*Research Professional News is an editorially independent part of Clarivate