Don’t compete, collaborate: why collective funding applications are the future

Around the world, funding bodies are reporting huge increases in the number of researchers applying for grants . A growing scientific workforce, pressure on researchers to secure funding and surging use of artificial-intelligence models that are slashing the time needed to write credible proposals are heaping pressure on a system that can barely cope. As application numbers rise, success rates fall . The result is a hypercompetitive funding system. Scientists waste valuable time writing grants that are unlikely to be successful. Some pursue fashionable topics to increase their chances of success, sidelining other essential research, such as replication studies. Could agentic AI topple grant-funding systems? Systemic change is needed. In my view, as someone who explores the benefits of coordination in science, researchers need to begin to work collectively, rather than competitively, for funding — including with their rivals. Last year, my PhD supervisor and I set out to help 12 metascientists to collaboratively apply for funding. Collaboration typically involves colleagues from within a scientist’s networks, but our group included competitors with disparate expertise who would not usually apply for funding together. We asked the participants to propose and evaluate potential grant topics, deciding together which of the projects would best improve science in their field. …