Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Starting out in research
- 3 Getting down to research
- 4 Scientific ethics and conduct
- 5 Publish or perish?
- 6 Communication and getting known
- 7 Moving up
- 8 Responsibilities
- 9 Funding research
- 10 Who owns science?
- 11 Science and the public
- 12 Power, pressure and politics
- 13 Social aspects of science
- 14 So who does want to be a scientist?
- Index
9 - Funding research
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Starting out in research
- 3 Getting down to research
- 4 Scientific ethics and conduct
- 5 Publish or perish?
- 6 Communication and getting known
- 7 Moving up
- 8 Responsibilities
- 9 Funding research
- 10 Who owns science?
- 11 Science and the public
- 12 Power, pressure and politics
- 13 Social aspects of science
- 14 So who does want to be a scientist?
- Index
Summary
Scientists are not wealthy of course, but the scale of their grants is usually so adjusted to make it possible to buy the equipment they need.
Research is expensive and funds normally need to be sought from external bodies. General infrastructure, things like buildings and their maintenance, libraries, computing facilities, administration, personnel, cleaners, porters and car parks, are usually funded by the institution. Increasingly, though, such costs have to be recovered from external sources, usually as indirect costs (or overheads) charged on grants. The direct costs of a research project pay the salaries of researchers (and sometimes part or all of the lab head), equipment and running costs (reagents, disposable items, computing costs, animals, cells, etc.). These will almost certainly have to be paid through grants sought by the principal investigator. Without such grants, very little research can be undertaken. The extent of funding required varies considerably from theoretical studies which may need just people, libraries and computing facilities, to astrophysics where large radio telescopes are extremely expensive and are almost always shared by a large consortium of scientists.
Securing external funding is also used as a measure of success in science. Significant income from peer-reviewed grants is an important part of a CV which greatly improves prospects of jobs and promotion. Money talks – even in science. Getting such grants is not so easy, particularly for the inexperienced. There is great competition for such funding, and award rates for some sources can be as low as 10%.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Who Wants to be a Scientist?Choosing Science as a Career, pp. 105 - 120Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002