How Can We Encourage Funders—Especially Philanthropic and Government Science Funders—to Standardly Adopt Impact-Oriented Prioritization Criteria When Awarding Grants?
Some members of the EA Switzerland community are interested in exploring ways to make research funding—both from private foundations and governments—more impact-oriented. Specifically, they want to encourage funders to adopt impact evaluations as a standard part of their grant-making process rather than relying solely on traditional academic metrics.
For example, it would be valuable if government funding agencies for research (especially in health and social sciences) prioritized funding for high-impact areas rather than assessing proposals exclusively based on conventional academic criteria, such as those outlined in the DORA Declaration (which emphasizes research outputs such as journal publications over real-world impact).
We have skimmed the EA Forum and found some articles and organizations (Rethink Priorities here and here, Ambitious Impact here or the Effective Institutions Project) that have touched on this field, but we would be grateful to get pointed to more resources if they exist.
Leave your comments below or write an email to [email protected]!
Thanks for your support!
Erik from EA Switzerland