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Rethink funding by putting the lottery first

Nature Human Behaviour volume 7, pages 1031–1033 (2023)Cite this article

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Research funding determines the course of science and thus shapes future knowledge. However, funding allocation is inherently biased, non-optimal and costly. We present a Shiny app that simulates the effects of funding scenarios on costs, diversity and quality. We advocate a lottery at the beginning to promote inclusion.

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Fig. 1: Exemplary grant application scenarios.
Fig. 2: Evaluation of the four exemplary funding scenarios with regard to costs, diversity and quality.

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Acknowledgements

We thank D. S. Stolz, Y. Schwarze, C. F. Weber & A. Schröder for their feedback on earlier versions of this article and the Shiny app.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany

    Finn Luebber, Sören Krach, Frieder M. Paulus & Lena Rademacher

  2. Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany

    Finn Luebber

  3. Open Science Initiative, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany

    Finn Luebber, Sören Krach, Frieder M. Paulus & Lena Rademacher

  4. Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, Germany

    Marina Martinez Mateo

  5. Behavioral Law & Economics, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany

    Rima-Maria Rahal

  6. Department of Psychology, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Jule Specht

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  1. Finn Luebber
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  2. Sören Krach
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  3. Marina Martinez Mateo
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  4. Frieder M. Paulus
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  5. Lena Rademacher
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  6. Rima-Maria Rahal
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  7. Jule Specht
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Correspondence to Sören Krach.

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Luebber, F., Krach, S., Martinez Mateo, M. et al. Rethink funding by putting the lottery first. Nat Hum Behav 7, 1031–1033 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01649-y

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