Fund ideas, not pedigree, to find fresh insight

Nature  March 6, 2018
Grant review tends to be biased against innovation; researchers’ best shot at funding is proposing the same sort of work that they have already proved they can do. Although there is some evidence to suggest that peer review can distinguish solid research from poor research, it is not clear that it can identify the very best. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation uses blind review for awards in its Grand Challenges Explorations programme, and New Zealand’s Health Research Council uses a random-number generator to prioritize ‘Explorer’ grant proposals that have fulfilled certain criteria. The global RAND Corporation and an international panel convened by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research have compiled an overview of review approaches and the — limited — empirical evidence for them… read more.