Applying for external funding of research: Motivation, capacity, and institutional support as perceived by researchers at UiT The Arctic University of Norway

• Published in: Septentrio Reports
• Main Authors: Brokjøb, Lise Gulli, Kochanska, Adrianna, Angelsnes, Viktoriia
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Septentrio Academic Publishing 2022
• Subjects: External funding; External research funding; Gender balance; Gender difference; Research funding; Motivation; Capacity; Institutional Support; Researchers; eksterne midler; forskningsmidler; eksternfinansiering; forskningsfinansiering; kjønnsbalanse; motivasjon; forskere; kapasitet; institusjonell støtte; Arctic; Norway; Arctic University of Norway; UiT The Arctic University of Norway
• Online Access: https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/SapReps/article/view/6856; https://doi.org/10.7557/7.6856

External project funds are essential for conducting research and establishing an academic career, and the funding application process itself can have numerous benefits for researchers. However, applying for external funding is a pervasive and time-consuming process affecting researchers’ capacity and workload. Further, the success rates of funding applications are low, ranging from 8% to 11% at the largest funding organs. Despite this, or arguably because of this, half of the researchers in higher education report experiencing higher institutional expectations and pressure to acquire external funds, rather than to generate high-quality research. There are also notable gender differences in the rates of external funding applications accepted by RCN, as around 63% of all accepted funding applications are for projects led by men. This gender distribution almost perfectly mirrors the gender distribution in submitted funding applications, as around 65% of all submitted applications are for projects led by men. Due to both this gender difference and the overall increasing relevance of external funding, it is important to investigate factors that might impact researchers’ motivation to apply for external funding and their capacity to do so, both overall, and by gender. Thus, this report from the Prestige Project aimed to investigate UiT employees’ attitudes regarding applying for external project funds and any potential gender differences. To do this, we conducted a survey that explored UiT employees’ attitudes around applying for external funding, as well as factors that may impact this. Specifically, we investigated researchers’ motivation for and against applying for further research, their capacity to do so, their perceived institutional support, and how much of their work versus personal time was spent working on external funding applications. We aimed to answer three main research questions: What are the main factors motivating researchers to (not) apply for external funding? 2 Does the motivation to (not) apply ...