Thread by @firefoxx66

I want to come back to this:
*Our current funding methods stand a good chance of failing #COVID19 #SARSCoV2 research.*

Initiatives across the globe are setting up emergency #hCoV19 funding calls. They vary but generally promise extra 💰 into a cash-starved system (research)

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Explicitly & implicitly this encourages *a lot* of scientists to switch to #COVID19 research - whether appropriate or not. Money is hard to come by in research. Every call - no matter how well or poorly suited - is potentially a few years' lifeline.

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Diversity in applications is *good*! But funding at the best of times is *slow as mud.* Overload an emergency funding call - while all reviewers are distracted by a pandemic - & it ain't gonna go faster.
Every week feels like a year - what happens while we wait for funding?

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Meanwhile - those working on #COVID19 #SARSCoV2 *RIGHT NOW* are those LEAST ABLE to write grants! Many of these are working *unfunded* - putting their other work on hold, working without resources - to provide COVID19 research *NOW*

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Many of these scientists *cannot write a grant*. Many of us are working all day, every day (inc weekends). Grants usually take days - weeks - to prepare. That kind of time is absolutely laughable for #COVID19 researchers at the moment. The lucky among us find a few hours.

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Those who don't have time to write at all *get NOTHING* & the work they do now is paid only in their sweat, tears & lost opportunities.
Those who scrape together a few hours compete against others who are not doing COVID now, operating more normally & could spend days on it

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These researchers at such a disadvantage are the ones who dropped everything to switch to this. They are glad to help. They work willingly. They are called by duty.

They are making your models, testing your patients, analysing your data, informing your govts - RIGHT NOW.

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And the best outcome for them is a small chance of some money in a crowded field - in a few months. For others, who couldn't scrape together time to write a grant - nothing.

Regardless, we do & will keep going, setting aside all other opportunities & work.

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Life isn't fair. But I, at least, cannot help but look at this & think *there must be a better way*.

More funding calls requiring different & long-form applications that take months to process *are not the answer*. Yet each agency in turn strolls out to lay them down.

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Scientists despair with each because *there is no time* & yet what choice do we have but to /try/ - because otherwise we struggle on unfunded.

So stay up late, work harder, tell them the research has to wait... in a pandemic. Is that what we want to encourage right now?

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*We need a better way forward for #COVID19 #SARSCoV2 funding.*

One way might be to reward work *already done* - fast-track SHORT applications based on the incredible research done in the past 3 months to *continue this work*.

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I ask - beg - funders to please: innovate. Scientists have never worked so hard, so openly, so urgently!

I know giving out money is fraught. You want results. We do too! Perhaps a little more trust can be put into the scientists who have proven themselves in last 3 months?

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Scientists are doing absolutely incredible things *with no funding for #COVID19 #SARSCoV2 at all.* Imagine what we could do if the pressures of applications & uncertainty about our futures were lifted!

Let's try to find a better way. Let's enable great COVID-19 science.

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