Researchers urge end to post-holiday funding call deadlines

Academics have urged funders to reconsider research grant deadlines that fall directly after holiday periods, warning that they eat into already limited time off and could disadvantage applicants with caring responsibilities.

In Sweden, academics have complained about August closing dates at funders including the Swedish Research Council and Vinnova, the country’s main innovation agency, with seven researchers using a recent opinion article to call for post-summer funding rounds to close no earlier than 15 September, with opportunities after the winter break shutting from 1 February onwards.

“Most people in Sweden have vacation in July or early August. It seems like they expect us to work during the vacation,” said Anders Eklund, associate professor in the department of biomedical engineering at Linköping University and one of the article’s authors.

Academics, he said, “have so many things going on at the same time – teaching, research, supervision. In many jobs, you can work eight-to-five and then relax, but in research, you never really can, which makes it even more important to have a few weeks off.”

In other sectors, September deadlines can be particularly problematic, with August the typical holiday month.

Francesco Pasqualini, a bioengineer at the University of Pavia, said that parents and other researchers with caring responsibilities could be at a disadvantage when competing for grants with post-holiday deadlines.

“Somebody who has to figure out where their kids are going to go during the summer has to write a grant proposal and compete with somebody who does not have that worry,” said Dr Pasqualini, vice-president of a grouping of Italy’s European Research Council awardees. “You’re creating a disparity.”

Nicola Dengo, postdoctoral researcher in materials science at the University of Insubria, said early career researchers could be disproportionately disadvantaged by post-holiday deadlines because of a lack of institutional support.

He recalled seeking help with a funding application from his university’s research career office, only to discover it was closed in August.

“The whole system doesn’t really work together,” said Dr Dengo, vice-president of the European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers (Eurodoc). “The calendar should be reviewed.”

Dr Pasqualini admitted it was “unrealistic” to expect post-holiday periods to be entirely free of grant deadlines. “Some things are going to end up in September and January, but it would be great if it wasn’t career-altering ones,” he said, pointing to ERC starting and consolidator grants as examples. This year, applications will close for the 2025 round of starting grants in October; the consolidator grant call, however, will end in January.

“People understand that these are career-altering opportunities, and they’re going to have to make some sacrifices if they want to compete,” Dr Pasqualini said. “But by placing deadlines at a certain time of the year, you’re asking some people to make more sacrifices than others.”

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com