Specific Data

• What do we expect to happen if the current trend continues unchecked?
• Does it represent healthy competition and improve proposal quality?
• Does it unfairly target younger researchers?
• Does it reduce the number of scientists in the field?
• Does it favor large projects over small projects? Is that good or bad?

• Is it good for the science? Specific data
  • Reduce the diversity of ideas? Stifle risky, but imaginative proposals?
    • How many proposals are same PI
    • Rate of success of new PI
    • Do new PIs come up thru the ranks? How many proposals was a PI on as a senior researcher in the past.
    • Size of collaborations, relative number of small vs large collaborations
    • How do we track “new ideas” ?
• Would it improve success rates?
  • funding requested per proposal, $$ requested for successful vs unsuccessful
  • number of times proposed before success. (and no success attempts)
  • demographics on success vs unsuccessful
• Would it reduce reviewer load?
  • number of proposals per group, per PI, per faculty vs research vs lab
• Would it create more PIs (proposals) from otherwise collaborating senior researchers?
• Does it make it even more difficult to decide between a few very excellent must-fund proposals?

• Is it good for the science?
  • Does it create funding gaps for tenure-seeking researchers and thus unfairly target a demographic we want to encourage?
  • Does it create uneven funding levels, loss of resources, lack of continuity in the off years?
• Would it improve success rates?
  • Or create a multitude of poor proposals in the “on” year
• Would the funding requested per proposal go up?
• Would it reduce reviewer load?
  • Or create many more proposals in the “on” year?

• Who is writing the proposals?
  • PI position: e.g. postdoc, assist. Prof, assoc. Prof, tenured faculty, research faculty, Gender, race/ethnicity, geographical location, size of institution
• How many proposals submitted by same PI (broken down by PI category)
• Number of senior researchers on proposal
  • per year, per category of PI, per funding requested
• Compare success rates of different sorts of proposals
  • per PI category, per number of senior researchers, per number of proposals submitted in the last 5 years, per funding requested
• Years between proposals
  • cross correlate to success rate, PI category, # of senior researcher
• Do younger researchers rise through the ranks (are researcher on proposal and then become PI later)?
  • Number of years between first appearance as senior researcher on a proposal to PI