How can societally-targeted research funding shape researcher networks and practices?

Abstract

Abstract Funding is considered to have a central role in defining the scope, content and direction of public research. However, we lack sufficient understanding of how funding can shape research networks and practices to enhance societal goals. In this paper, we apply a recent approach that explores the societal targeting of funding across four key dimensions: interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, prioritized research problems, and user-oriented outputs. Through in-depth case studies of 12 funded research projects, we explore shaping in these dimensions by contrasting pre- and post-acquisition of a societally targeted project grant based on the accounts of principal investigators (PI). We examine cases across two research areas—renewable energy and food science—in three European countries—Denmark, Netherlands and Norway. Our analysis suggests that societally targeted funding can act as an enabler of inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations and the accumulation of experience to manage them. This funding also encourages research practices that prioritize societal research problems and foster users’ utilization of research outputs while still preserving researcher scientific autonomy. Shaping dynamics are then examined in connection with funding requirements across the four dimensions.