Abstract
"The important thing is not to win, it is to take part," this famous saying by Pierre de Coubertin asserts that the value athletes draw from Olympic games lies in their participation in the event and not in the gold they collect during it. We find similar evidence for scientists involved in grant competitions. Relying on unique data from a Swiss funding program, we find that scientists taking part in a research grant competition boost their number of publications and average impact factor while extending their knowledge base and their collaboration network regardless of the result of the competition. Receiving the funds increases the probability of co-authoring with co-applicants but has no additional impact on the individual productivity.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 84-97 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Research Policy |
Volume | 48 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Feb 2019 |
JEL classifications
- o30 - "Technological Change; Research and Development; Intellectual Property Rights: General"
Keywords
- Competitive grants
- Learning
- Public funding evaluation
- Scientific collaboration
- Scientific productivity
- Knowledge based systems
- Collaboration network
- Individual productivity
- Knowledge base
- Public funding
- Research grants
- Productivity
- INNOVATION
- IMPACT