By the deadline of the Research Council of Norway 25th of May, 1731 applications had been submitted. Of these, 1271 went to the FRIPRO programme. From BIO, 19 applications were submitted to FRIPRO, of these 12 researcher applications, three mobility stipends and two Young Research Talent applications. In addition, four applications were sent to KLIMAFORSK, three to INTPART, and one to the UTNAM programme. As usual, EECRG is the most active research group, coordinating 10 applications.
This year we have tried a new model, where the applicants have been invited to present their ideas for each other and for a panel of BIO’s more experienced scientists, who have also read the applications and given advice on the project descriptions. We hope and believe that this has improved the quality of the applications sent by the deadline, and that more projects will succeed in getting through the eye of the needle.
It isn’t the number that counts, in fact. And maybe these fixed deadlines are contributing to the generation of more half-good applications, and hence more waste of time, both for the scientists and the evaluation panel, than necessary. An attempt by the National Science Foundation in USA to get rid of the enormous heaps of applications at certain times of the year indicates that it is so.
Since NSF introduced open deadlines for some of its programmes in 2011, the number of applications has been halved. It can seem like it is the half-motivated and sloppy prepared applications that disappear, while the good applications are improved through better preparation and time for polishing.
Another advantage with open deadlines is that fixed deadlines always seem to fit poorly for most people, and especially for university scientists. The May deadline comes at the time of exams and submission of master theses. The September deadline comes just after semester start, student receptions, and is often written at the time when foreign collaborators have their holiday.
Maybe time to skip deadlines also for the Research Council?
Monday this week the Norwegian Ocean Laboratory was opened at Marineholmen. Both rector Dag Rune Olsen, IMR director Sissel Rogne, and Prime Minister Erna Solberg were present when it was also announced that the KG Jebsen Foundation will fund a KG Jebsen Center for Deep Ocean Research, lead by Rolf Birger Pedersen at CGB, and with our own Hans Tore Rapp on the team. Congratulations to everyone involved!
Congratulations also to Richard Telford and coauthors on a level 2 publication in Quaternary Science Reviews.
Hilsen Anders
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