AFIRE - RoRI's Accelerator For Innovation & Research Funding Experimentation
Tom Stafford, AFIRE programme lead
23 October 2024
t.stafford@sheffield.ac.uk
18 Core Partners
10 codesigned projects
AFIRE
These slides:
https://researchonresearch.org/project/a-f-i-r-e/
https://researchonresearch.org/project/a-f-i-r-e/
Forum
Support
Experiments!
AFIRE
2024-25 Funder Forum series
Villum Experiment – a grant scheme with double-blind evaluation
23 October 2024 00:00 PDT / 08:00 BST / 09:00 CEST
Anders Smith, Villum Foundation
Predicting Progress: A Pilot of Expected Utility Forecasting in Science Funding
20 November 2024 07:00 PST / 15:00 GMT / 16:00 CET
Alice Wu, Federation of American Scientists
Enhancing EDI in application processes in the CES Transformation Fund, including evaluation of an anonymisation-deanonymisation review process
18 December 2024 07:00 PST / 15:00 GMT / 16:00 CET
Rachel Kendal, Principal Investigator CES Transformation Fund
Partial Randomisation at The British Academy
19 February 2025 00:00 PDT / 08:00 BST / 09:00 CEST
Ken Emond, The British Academy & Adrian Barnett
Do Grant Proposal Texts Matter for Funding Decisions? A Field Experiment at NWO
19 March 2025 07:00 PST / 15:00 GMT / 16:00 CET
Müge Şimşek, University of Amsterdam
An experiment with Distributed Peer Review
23 April 2025 00:00 PDT / 08:00 BST / 09:00 CEST
Hanna Denneke, The Volkswagen Foundation
Register for updates. Speaker suggestions welcome!
AFIRE
2024-25 Funder Forum series
These slides:
Support
Sprints
- Focussed support on topics in funder experiments, Five fortnightly meetings, ~90 minutes, online, a small group, dedicated to progressing the issue
- Two planned topics:
- Order and details coming soon soon!
AFIRE - RoRI's Accelerator For Innovation & Research Funding Experimentation
Tom Stafford, AFIRE programme lead
23 October 2024
t.stafford@sheffield.ac.uk
(Reserve slides follow, not for display)
These slides:
Forum
Launch Keynotes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DColipQFEo
Stian Westlake, Executive Chair, ESRC (part of UK Research and Innovation) outlined ambitions for the UK government’s Metascience Unit and linked £5 million UKRI and Open Philanthropy funding call;
Hanna Denecke, Head of Funding Team “Exploration” at the Volkswagen Foundation, described their latest experiment with distributed peer review;
Caleb Watney, Co-founder and Co-CEO of the Institute for Progress in Washington DC, previewed a new wave of metascience experiments at the US National Science Foundation.
These slides:
Bendiscioli et al. (2022):
The experimental research funder’s handbook (Revised edition, June 2022, ISBN 978-1-7397102-0-0).
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19459328.v2
Support
= better quality evidence
Experiments!
Experiments!
Aligning possible outcomes and evaluation measures
These slides:
AFIRE - Accelerator For Innovation & Research Funding Experimentation
t.stafford@sheffield.ac.uk
https://researchonresearch.org/project/a-f-i-r-e/
“Around 85% of researchers who applied for grants from a German funder have given the thumbs up to ‘distributed peer review’, a new process in which applicants are asked to review proposals by other researchers as a condition to having their own proposal considered.”
Distributed Peer Review Experiment
Current status:
- reviews underway
- applications numbers up
- applicant attitudes positive about DPR (see graphs)