Researchers analyzed review scores and funding decisions for more than 4,000 applications from 2002 to 2008 from a granting program for early-career scientists in Europe, and found that grant winners scoring just above the award threshold accumulated more than twice the research funding in subsequent years and were more likely to achieve full professorship than nonwinners who scored just below the award threshold; the findings might be explained by more positive evaluations for grant winners than nonwinners in subsequent grant opportunities and by the fact that nonwinners were less likely to compete for future funding, according to the authors.
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Article #17-19557: "The Matthew effect in science funding," by Thijs Bol, Mathijs de Vaan, and Arnout van de Rijt.
MEDIA CONTACT: Thijs Bol, University of Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS; tel: +31616359612; e-mail: < t.bol@uva.nl >
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences