‘Shockingly low’ ESRC success rates raise social sciences alarm

Less than one in eight applications to a major UK research council grant scheme received funding last year, according to new figures that have raised concerns about “shockingly low” success rates in the social sciences.

Statistics obtained from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) by Times Higher Education via a Freedom of Information request show that just 64 of the 547 applications for responsive mode grants it considered in 2022-23 were approved for funding – a success rate of 11.7 per cent.

Some £34.5 million was awarded to these successful bids – about 13 per cent of the £261.5 million requested by all applicants to the scheme, which provides funding of between £350,000 and £1 million for “researcher-driven basic, applied and strategic research”.

Fewer than half of all applications (46 per cent) were considered by funding panels, with 31 bids rejected by office-based decisions, 45 withdrawn by research organisations and 224 deemed non-fundable by reviewers.

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Such success rates were not found on comparable responsive mode grant schemes at other research councils. At the Medical Research Council (MRC), 24 per cent of bids (335 in total) were approved in 2022-23 – the same proportion of applications that were greenlit at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), where 452 bids were approved, according to figures also requested by THE.

Hamish Low, head of the department of economics at the University of Oxford, said the ESRC’s “shockingly low” success rate would alarm many researchers, given the huge effort required to submit grant applications.

“Applying for grants takes substantial time and thought. It is dispiriting that the probability of success is less than one in eight,” said Professor Low, noting that “this is the success rate for those that make it to application stage”, with some bids likely to have been held back by universities after internal assessment.

“These levels of award rates and support for research in economics and social science are a real disincentive for researchers to apply,” added Professor Low, who suggested that it would “instead push research in particular directions and away from addressing the key societal challenges”.

Selected UK funding councils’ grant application success rates and funding awards

Source: UKRI via Freedom of Information request. Data for applications for responsive mode grants considered in 2022-23 (excludes New Investigator Awards). Figures rounded to nearest £100,000, or one decimal place for percentages.
* EPSRC does not have a shortlisting/triage process, with all applications that make it through the peer review stage considered at the panel stage.

Earlier this year Professor Low raised concerns about how changes to funding mechanisms linked to the Research Excellence Framework meant that social sciences would lose out on about £100 million a year in funding after Research England fixed the share of quality-research cash that each panel could receive at 2014 levels.

The “substantial differences in funding across disciplines”, which saw the MRC award £281 million and the EPSRC £389 million in investigator-led funding, would contribute to problems “already built in through the REF financial settlement”, said Professor Low.

The new figures might also raise questions about the level of ESRC funding available for open-call grants, given that just £34.5 million of its core £121.5 million research budget was allocated to such funding, which is often crucial for the careers of mid-career researchers.

In recent years, the ESRC has increasingly sought to fund major research projects, such as a £7 million network to promote innovation-led growth, led by Oxford Brookes University, which was greenlit this year.

The ESRC’s overall grant success rate covering all competitive schemes was 22 per cent, with 238 awards from 1,061 applications in 2022-23, according to the latest UK Research and Innovation data. For its new investigator grants, 33 of 168 applications were approved – a 20 per cent success rate.

An ESRC spokesperson said: “We recognise that the high demand for responsive mode schemes can result in lower success rates. We remain committed to a balanced portfolio that includes fundamental, curiosity-driven research as well as strategically focused programmes.”

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com