Project-Based Funding: What Are the Effects on the Work of Researchers?

MATTHIEU HUBERT; SÉVERINE LOUVEL

MOUVEMENTS

CAIRN / La Découverte

Lugar: París; Año: 2012 p. 13 - 24

http://cairn-int.info/my_cart.php?ID_ARTICLE=E_MOUV_071_0013 In France, the transformation of the ways in which public research is funded is one of the most controversial issues among the current reforms of the national research and innovation system. In the experimental sciences, a traditionally budget-consuming sector, but also in theoretical disciplines and some fields in the humanities and social sciences, money has become "the sinews of war" and its importance goes hand in hand with the rise of a project-based organization of research. Therefore, funding crystallizes the debate on how to regulate and control scientific work, and on the confrontation of managerial and professional perspectives in public research. In this article, we propose an overview of the impact this change in funding methods is having on the work of researchers. We will first present a few elements related to the importance of project-based fundingin public research in France. Then, based on a review of literature and empirical investigations conducted within the framework of several studies, we will illustrate how project-based funding affects laboratory organization, transforms individual and collective strategies, changes the way researchers work on a daily basis, and reconfiguresprofessional hierarchies. In conclusion, we will return to the conflict between professionand organization that the expansion of project-based funding has revealed, by focusing on how the boundaries of researchers´ professional autonomy have evolved.