Thread by @FBone11

In our last #STP @SPRU Data Science class, chief analyst @Researchfish Gavin Reddick gave excellent insights on why funders collect grant data, the advantages of having one platform to collect data, a glimpse of his research, and tips for aspiring data scientists. 1/9

Information is collected for advocacy, accountability, analysis and allocation. Transparency of where the funds have gone, but also the ability to articulate what has been achieved is crucial for both research councils and charities to sustain their own funding. 2/9

Connecting funders’ data means that we can move from an individual to a systemic view of the funding landscape and understand the complementarities between funders. 3/9

Here is an example on how a single researcher has funded their research team over a number of years. In general, smaller funders help researchers to support an earlier stage of research, before application to larger and more prestigious grants. 4/9

@Researchfish projects highlight the collective nature of science. One project showed how a change in clinical guidelines was enabled by awards funded by 4 distinct funders and 3 PIs.Another project showed how 4 novel therapies relied on the research of over 3,400 researchers.5/9

Other projects looked at how outputs start to appear. A first project showed how many years translational research projects take to produce materials or individual products. 6/9

Another project aimed at identifying the grants that would end up in impact case studies. Glad that @SPRU #STP two students could contribute to this last project through a placement over the summer term. 7/9

Some final tips: 1⃣Don’t be afraid to roll up your sleeves and do manual work. 2⃣Give a critical eye to the data, understand their distribution before conducting more analytical work. 3⃣Domain expertise can go a long way to ask the right questions and interpret the results. 8/9

4⃣When looking at research outputs for funded grants, we are not counting beans ➡️comparing the number of publications won’t enable to tell which project was better. 9/9