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darwinists

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[交流] 基金申请方式改革，Wellcome Trust打响第一枪

国外科学家抱怨花了太长时间准备申请书，都没时间做科研了。
我国科学家抱怨，基金申请中人情因素太大、随机性太强。

针对这一问题，英国的Wellcome Trust基金会开始改革了。我的理解就是增加人才类项目，让有实力的科研人员专心做科研，有点像我国的杰青、新世纪什么的。但人家拿出总经费的20%，也就不是在奖励个别人。而是一种新的尝试，如果好，也许会投入更大比例。

我在后面附上Science就此做的报道，供我们的领导人或与领导人联系密切的网友参考。

鉴于中国很多人贪得无厌，有很多人经费没够，给他两百万，他还想要两千万，给他两千万他还想要两个亿。将来如果设立这种经费，一定要注意以下几点：

不能重复申请其他经费，如果工作中确实不够，由负责人申请增加额度、专家评议讨论。
严格审计，不允许报销科研以外的费用，每年办公用品（笔、纸、本等）用量不超过多大比例，要让这种经费成为“最难花”的经费。

要用严格的制度把不真正需要经费做研究的人吓走。

请见多识广的网友们提出更多建议，供将来我国的改革者参考。

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/326/5955/921

Philanthropy:
Wellcome Trust to Shift From Projects to People
Jocelyn Kaiser

Scientists often complain that they spend too much time chasing after their next grant and not enough time doing research. Now the Wellcome Trust, the giant biomedical research charity in the United Kingdom, wants to remove those constraints by giving no-strings-attached funding to nearly all the independent researchers it supports.

This week, Wellcome officials announced that they are phasing out their biomedical research grants for U.K. scientists, which consists of 3-year to 5-year awards focused on a specific problem. Instead, starting in 2011, the organization will put that money, about 20% of its total budget, or $183 million, into a new program called Investigator Awards. The awards will be bigger, more flexible, and longer—up to 7 years.

"The idea is to empower the very best scientists to tackle difficult, long-term questions," says Wellcome Trust Director Mark Walport. Although the trust already provides this kind of support, including salaries, through fellowships, the new awards will expand this model to researchers who receive their salary from their institutions.

The change puts the $21 billion Wellcome Trust in line with the policies of the smaller Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) in Chevy Chase, Maryland, to fund "people, not projects." More than 350 Hughes investigators each receive $1 million a year (including overhead costs) for 5 years under the institute's major program to support research, and that support can be extended indefinitely. The U.S. National Institutes of Health supports nearly 200 researchers with similar programs it began a few years ago.

Wellcome already offers fellowships that provide salaries and research funds for more than 500 independent researchers for 4 to 7 years. But the foundation also funds about 200 investigators a year with 3-year project grants that range from $250,000 to $500,000 in total. It awards another 45 or so program grants for up to $2 million over 5 years. Wellcome will hold one more competition next summer for these awards before taking applications in the fall for the new program.

Whereas HHMI selects its investigators through paper applications, Walport says that, as with the fellows, Wellcome plans to interview candidates in person to "test their mettle." Reviewers will focus less on paperwork and more on qualifications and the importance of the research. The trust hopes this interaction will create a "community of scientists," says Walport. Researchers will remain free to seek grants from other sources as well.

Walport declined to specify the annual funding level per investigator, noting that researchers will request what they need. But the total number of researchers supported is expected to be lower than the 245 or so now with project or program grants. (Although the grants may be smaller than HHMI's, investigators can also apply for supplemental grants for equipment, travel, and other expenses.) A subset of the new program will be reserved for early-career scientists.

"I fully support the move," says Paul Nurse, a British Nobel Prize–winner who is now president of Rockefeller University in New York City. "I think it's the most effective way to fund science." Molecular biologist Angus Lamond of the University of Dundee in the United Kingdom, a Wellcome fellow and grants review panel chair, predicts that the reaction of U.K. scientists will be mixed. Dundee, who was not part of the decision, says it will be important for the trust to "listen to feedback" and address any problems that crop up.

[ Last edited by darwinists on 2009-11-13 at 13:37 ]

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Originally posted by darwinists at 2009-11-13 13:27:
国外科学家抱怨花了太长时间准备申请书，都没时间做科研了。
我国科学家抱怨，基金申请中人情因素太大、随机性太强。

针对这一问题，英国的Wellcome Trust基金会开始改革了。我的理解就是增加人才类项目，让有 ...

多谢提供

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