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Decision-making approaches used by UK and international health funding organisations for allocating research funds: A survey of current practice
Innovations in decision-making practice for allocation of funds in health research are emerging; however, it is not clear to what extent these are used. This study aims to better understand current decision-making practices for the allocation of research funding from the perspective of UK and intern...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7644005/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33151954 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239757 |
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author | Meadmore, Katie Fackrell, Kathryn Recio-Saucedo, Alejandra Bull, Abby Fraser, Simon D. S. Blatch-Jones, Amanda |
author_facet | Meadmore, Katie Fackrell, Kathryn Recio-Saucedo, Alejandra Bull, Abby Fraser, Simon D. S. Blatch-Jones, Amanda |
author_sort | Meadmore, Katie |
collection | PubMed |
description | Innovations in decision-making practice for allocation of funds in health research are emerging; however, it is not clear to what extent these are used. This study aims to better understand current decision-making practices for the allocation of research funding from the perspective of UK and international health funders. An online survey (active March-April 2019) was distributed by email to UK and international health and health-related funding organisations (e.g., biomedical and social), and was publicised on social media. The survey collected information about decision-making approaches for research funding allocation, and covered assessment criteria, current and past practices, and considerations for improvements or future practice. A mixed methods analysis provided descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages of responses) and an inductive thematic framework of key experiences. Thirty-one responses were analysed, representing government-funded organisations and charities in the health sector from the UK, Europe and Australia. Four themes were extracted and provided a narrative framework. 1. The most reported decision-making approaches were external peer review, triage, and face-to-face committee meetings; 2. Key values underpinned decision-making processes. These included transparency and gaining perspectives from reviewers with different expertise (e.g., scientific, patient and public); 3. Cross-cutting challenges of the decision-making processes faced by funders included bias, burden and external limitations; 4. Evidence of variations and innovations from the most reported decision-making approaches, including proportionate peer review, number of decision-points, virtual committee meetings and sandpits (interactive workshop). Broadly similar decision-making processes were used by all funders in this survey. Findings indicated a preference for funders to adapt current decision-making processes rather than using more innovative approaches: however, there is a need for more flexibility in decision-making and support to applicants. Funders indicated the need for information and empirical evidence on innovations which would help to inform decision-making in research fund allocation. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7644005 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-76440052020-11-16 Decision-making approaches used by UK and international health funding organisations for allocating research funds: A survey of current practice Meadmore, Katie Fackrell, Kathryn Recio-Saucedo, Alejandra Bull, Abby Fraser, Simon D. S. Blatch-Jones, Amanda PLoS One Research Article Innovations in decision-making practice for allocation of funds in health research are emerging; however, it is not clear to what extent these are used. This study aims to better understand current decision-making practices for the allocation of research funding from the perspective of UK and international health funders. An online survey (active March-April 2019) was distributed by email to UK and international health and health-related funding organisations (e.g., biomedical and social), and was publicised on social media. The survey collected information about decision-making approaches for research funding allocation, and covered assessment criteria, current and past practices, and considerations for improvements or future practice. A mixed methods analysis provided descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages of responses) and an inductive thematic framework of key experiences. Thirty-one responses were analysed, representing government-funded organisations and charities in the health sector from the UK, Europe and Australia. Four themes were extracted and provided a narrative framework. 1. The most reported decision-making approaches were external peer review, triage, and face-to-face committee meetings; 2. Key values underpinned decision-making processes. These included transparency and gaining perspectives from reviewers with different expertise (e.g., scientific, patient and public); 3. Cross-cutting challenges of the decision-making processes faced by funders included bias, burden and external limitations; 4. Evidence of variations and innovations from the most reported decision-making approaches, including proportionate peer review, number of decision-points, virtual committee meetings and sandpits (interactive workshop). Broadly similar decision-making processes were used by all funders in this survey. Findings indicated a preference for funders to adapt current decision-making processes rather than using more innovative approaches: however, there is a need for more flexibility in decision-making and support to applicants. Funders indicated the need for information and empirical evidence on innovations which would help to inform decision-making in research fund allocation. Public Library of Science 2020-11-05 /pmc/articles/PMC7644005/ /pubmed/33151954 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239757 Text en © 2020 Meadmore et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Meadmore, Katie Fackrell, Kathryn Recio-Saucedo, Alejandra Bull, Abby Fraser, Simon D. S. Blatch-Jones, Amanda Decision-making approaches used by UK and international health funding organisations for allocating research funds: A survey of current practice |
title | Decision-making approaches used by UK and international health funding organisations for allocating research funds: A survey of current practice |
title_full | Decision-making approaches used by UK and international health funding organisations for allocating research funds: A survey of current practice |
title_fullStr | Decision-making approaches used by UK and international health funding organisations for allocating research funds: A survey of current practice |
title_full_unstemmed | Decision-making approaches used by UK and international health funding organisations for allocating research funds: A survey of current practice |
title_short | Decision-making approaches used by UK and international health funding organisations for allocating research funds: A survey of current practice |
title_sort | decision-making approaches used by uk and international health funding organisations for allocating research funds: a survey of current practice |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7644005/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33151954 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239757 |
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