{"id":1311,"date":"2023-02-26T21:00:43","date_gmt":"2023-02-26T21:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socialscienceresearchfunding.co.uk\/?p=1311"},"modified":"2024-05-17T12:09:27","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T11:09:27","slug":"research-grant-application-success-rates-an-optimist-writes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socialscienceresearchfunding.co.uk\/?p=1311","title":{"rendered":"Research Grant Application Success rates: An optimist writes\u2026.<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A version of this article first appeared in Funding Insight<\/a> in October 2019 and is reproduced with kind permission of Research Professional<\/a>. For more articles like this, visit www.researchprofessional.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Success rates for many research funding calls may be low, but a quality, competitive application\u2019s chances of success will be much higher. Adam Golberg tries to look on the bright side of life\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dark Elf Dice, CC BY-SA 4.0 https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When analysing a funding call and deciding whether to apply, it\u2019s always worth finding out the success rate from previous rounds. Some funders are better than others in terms of publicising success rates. Some won\u2019t share them at all, others will hide them away in annual reports, others will publish a lot of details and data, but on relatively hard to find pages on their website. Or they’ll conflate outline and full application stage success rates. If you can\u2019t find success rates easily, ask your friendly neighbourhood research development professional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One-off or new calls might specify a total budget or expected number of projects to be funded, but obviously won\u2019t have success rates. Changes to funding schemes can make comparisons with previous years less useful, and with multiple stage schemes (outline, full, and perhaps an interview), it\u2019s probably the success rate at each stage that\u2019s most useful to know. Where calls don\u2019t have success rates \u2013 and often even when they do \u2013 there will usually be details of approximately many awards will be made, or what kind of budget is available for this call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These success rates and numbers of projects likely to be funded are likely to be depressing \u2013 success rates in single digits, in the most extreme cases. But don\u2019t get discouraged too quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Overall scheme success rate vs. competitive application<\/em> success rate.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d argue that it\u2019s worth thinking in terms of two different success rates. The first is the statistical success rate \u2013 total number of awards divided by the total number of applications. I\u2019d argue that there\u2019s a second success rate \u2013 the number of awards divided by the number of fundable<\/em> applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes an application \u2018fundable\u2019?<\/p>\n\n\n\n