25 January 2016 15 1K Report

I have often wondered if funded research grants enhance or hinder research. With the five-year grant that I have received from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, I have been able to hire research assistants, undertake research with technological support, participate in conferences, and be otherwise productive. However, I have also consecrated enormous energy to the administrative side of the equation, to training and supporting the research assistants, writing updates, reports and evaluations to maintain the grant, and also in developing the grant proposal. Of course, having empirical data is most helpful to publishing the work but I have also been engaged in several other initiatives that were not funded, and I have produced a reasonable amount of publications, collaborations, and other outcomes, such as reports, projects and related work, through these non-funded ventures. A colleague once mentioned to me that he would have never gotten tenure today because he has never received a research grant, and yet he is a well-known international scholar, highly esteemed in his area of expertise with some 50 published books. Thus, I feel the pressure to get grants, which can enhance one's career, and feed into the neoliberal notion of the contemporary university, because of the boxes on evaluation forms but wonder if one might be as productive, creative, conscientious and meaningful without the grant debacle circling overhead. Is there a third way whereby one's contribution might be equally valued and meaningful without the monetary strings being attached?

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