With grant success rates approaching 5%, is it any wonder that there are those scientists out there who are repeatedly unsuccessful in obtaining research funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)? When most of the EPSRC’s budget goes on large-scale projects and managed programs, it leaves little left for the rest of us, who are doing excellent research (and get peer reviewed as such) yet are not doing the “in-thing” as defined by out political classes.
To tackle the problems, the EPSRC are having a policy change. I quote (from a document I have been sent by email)
EPSRC is looking to safe guard the peer review system by managing the burden placed upon it by applicants who are repeatedly unsuccessful
In other words, they are going to exclude those that are not in the “in-crowd” of managed programs and large-scale projects from applying in the first place!
This has got to be stopped! The politicisation of our universities since Labour came to power must be reversed.