Targeted funding and changing research landscapes (RoRI Working Paper No. 18)

As demands intensify for research to address societal missions or challenges such as climate change, ageing or pandemic preparedness, research funders have developed funding instruments targeted at specific topics. We asked: does targeted funding shape the overall research landscape and what researchers work on in the longer term?This study examines this question by analysing targeted funding programmes from the Research Council of Norway (RCN) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), comparing them with non-targeted (response-mode) funding.