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How ‘research impact bonds’ could transform science funding

Current funding models have high risks and low accountability. Public–private partnerships offer a better way.
  1. Michael Hill

    1. Michael Hill is head of grant management at the Swiss National Science Foundation in Bern.

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As head of grant management at the Swiss National Science Foundation, I have spent a lot of time thinking about how grants are used to fund research, through processes that have changed little since the 1940s. Funders award grants to the most-promising proposals or on the basis of researchers’ or organizations’ past achievements. These approaches assume that the recipient will do great research, but have no guarantees and limited accountability. The funder bears the full risk.

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Nature 618, 887 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02070-1

This article represents the personal views of the author, not of the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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