Unequal Distribution of Innovation Efforts for Neglected Tropical Diseases: The Role of Funding Evaluation Criteria

Background: International research and innovation efforts for neglected tropical diseases have increased in recent decades due to disparities in overall health research funding in relation to global burden of disease. However, within the field of neglected tropical diseases some seem far more neglected than others. In this research the aim is to investigate the distribution of resources and efforts, as well as the mechanisms that underpin funding allocation for neglected tropical diseases. Methodology: A systematic literature review was conducted to establish a comprehensive overview of known indicators for innovation efforts related to a wide range of neglected tropical diseases. Articles were selected based on a subjective evaluation of their relevance, the presence of original data, and the breadth of their scope. This was followed by thirteen in-depth open-ended interviews with representatives of private, public and philanthropic funding organizations, concerning evaluation criteria for funding research proposals. Results: The findings reveal a large difference in the extent to which the individual diseases are neglected with notable differences between absolute and relative efforts. Criteria used in the evaluation of research proposals relate to potential impact, the probability of success and strategic fit. Private organizations prioritize strategic fit and economic impact;philanthropic organizations prioritize short-term societal impact;and public generally prioritize the probability of success by accounting for follow-up funding and involvement of industry. Funding decisions of different types of organizations are highly interrelated. Conclusions: This study shows that the evaluation of funding proposals introduces and retains unequal funding distribution, reinforcing the relative neglect of diseases. Societal impact is the primary rationale for funding but application of it as a funding criterion is associated with significant challenges. Furthermore, current application of evaluation criteria leads to a primary focus on short-term impact. Through current practice, the relatively most neglected diseases will remain so, and a long-term strategy is needed to resolve this.

Research funding and citations in papers of Nobel Laureates in Physics, Chemistry and Medicine, 2019-2020

Purpose:The goal of this study is a comparative analysis of the relation between funding(a main driver for scientific research)and citations in papers of Nobel Laureates in physics,chemistry and medicine over 2019-2020 and the same relation in these research fields as a whole.Design/methodology/approach:This study utilizes a power law model to explore the relationship between research funding and citations of related papers.The study here analyzes 3,539 recorded documents by Nobel Laureates in physics,chemistry and medicine and a broader dataset of 183,016 documents related to the fields of physics,medicine,and chemistry recorded in the Web of Science database.Findings:Results reveal that in chemistry and medicine,funded researches published in papers of Nobel Laureates have higher citations than unfunded studies published in articles;vice versa high citations of Nobel Laureates in physics are for unfunded studies published in papers.Instead,when overall data of publications and citations in physics,chemistry and medicine are analyzed,all papers based on funded researches show higher citations than unfunded ones.Originality/value:Results clarify the driving role of research funding for science diffusion that are systematized in general properties:a)articles concerning funded researches receive more citations than(un)funded studies published in papers of physics,chemistry and medicine sciences,generating a high Matthew effect(a higher growth of citations with the increase in the number of papers);b)research funding increases the citations of articles in fields oriented to applied research(e.g.,chemistry and medicine)more than fields oriented towards basic research(e.g.,physics).Practical implications:The results here explain some characteristics of scientific development and diffusion,highlighting the critical role of research funding in fostering citations and the expansion of scientific knowledge.This finding can support decision-making of policymakers and R&D managers to improve the effectiveness in allocating financial resources in science policies to generate a higher positive scientific and societal impact.

The relation between funding by the National Institutes of Health and the burden of disease

Background:The Institute of Medicine has proposed that the amount of disease-specific research funding provided by the National Institutes of Health(NIH)be systematically and consistently compared with the burden of disease for society.Methods:We performed a cross-sectional study comparing estimates of disease-specific funding in 1996 with data on six measures of the burden of disease.

The relation between funding by the National Institutes of Health and the burden of disease

Background:The Institute of Medicine has proposed that the amount of disease-specific research funding provided by the National Institutes of Health(NIH)be systematically and consistently compared with the burden of disease for society.Methods:We performed a cross-sectional study comparing estimates of disease-specific funding in 1996 with data on six measures of the burden of disease.The measures were total mortality,years of life lost,and number of hospital days in 1994 and incidence,prevalence,and disability-adjusted life-years(one disability-adjusted life-year is defined as the loss of one year of healthy life to disease)in 1990.With the use of these measures as explanatory variables in a regression analysis,predicted funding was calculated and compared with actual funding.

Strategies for China’s Response to and Improvement of Third-Party Funding in International Investment Arbitration

China should prioritize the establishment and enhancement of a third-party funding system.It should actively refine the existing arbitration rules,addressing any loopholes in the current regulatory framework.Comprehensive measures should be implemented to regulate third-party funding,aligning with international trends.This is crucial not only to safeguard the foreign investment of the Chinese government and enterprises but also to position China as a globally influential arbitration center.

Analysis of standardization of community security fund management-Taking practice of community security fund management in Wuhou district of Chengdu as an example

The Chengdu community security funds refer to the special security funds for urban and rural community development and governance in Chengdu.At present,there are some problems in the use of community security funds,such as low participation of residents,and low efficiency of fund use.Taking the exploration of standardization of community security fund management in Wuhou district,Chengdu city,as an example,this paper suggests further strengthening the use and management of community security funds by means of standardization,ensuring the democratic,open,and transparent use of funds,and effectively enhancing the supporting role of community security funds in community governance.

Dilemmas and Optimization of Third-Party Assessment System in Chinese Fair Competition Review

The current predominant self-review mechanism by policy-making bodies suffers from deficiencies such as insufficient motivations, limited review capabilities, and weak external supervision. Third-party assessment, characterized by independence and specialization, is designed to mitigate these shortcomings. However, the implementation of third-party assessment faces challenges too. This paper intends to improve the third-party assessment system and to realize the legislative purpose of the system. Based on social research, discussions and exchanges with relevant parties, and the existing research results, this paper analyzes the challenges and possible optimization measures for the third-party assessment. The challenges include repulsion from policy-making bodies, insufficient independence of assessment bodies, disparity of assessment quality, and limited application of assessment outcomes. Possible optimization measures include promoting fair competition culture, increasing the acceptance of third-party assessment from policy-making bodies, enhancing the quality of third-party assessment, clarifying the relationship between policy-making bodies and assessment bodies, ensuring the independence of third-party assessments, and promoting the application of assessment results.

Strategies for Cultivating Public Funded Targeted Normal Students Based on Goal Management Theory : A Case Study of East, West and North Guangdong

Public funded targeted normal students are an important component of China's teacher team construction.Since its implementation in 2007,a large number of outstanding rural teachers who have been striving on the front line of education have been trained.Based on the theory of goal management,this paper explores the problems and countermeasures in the training of public funded targeted normal students.It strives to solve the problems of low willingness to teach and high default rates among public funded normal students,and hopes that the suggestions proposed in this paper can further promote the effective implementation of policies for public funded normal students.

The Observation of Trends and Impacts of States Funding on Higher Education in America

The adequacy of state funding for higher education in America is vital to cultivate the qualified workforce and help in developing the state’s economy.With the economy downturn situation,whether the current state funding is adequate to the need of institutions and students is a valuable question to be investigated.This research reviewed the whole trends of state and federal support of the higher education,having analyzed the data of higher education funding for the whole state,for the institution development,and for the students and their families.With the enrollment increasing and the inflation growing,the state fund was dropping.Although states supply a greater part of funding to public universities,most of the state funding goes to community colleges and non-research public institutions.The public research institutions and undergraduate education are important components in higher education,generating changing the development for the entire society.The state should make some adjustments in distributing funding in order to keep up with the most urgent needs of the higher education and ease pressure on the institutions,and ease the financial burden on students and their families.

The Flemish Performance-based Research Funding System: A Unique Variant of the Norwegian Model

The BOF-key is the performance-based research funding system that is used in Flanders, Belgium. In this paper we describe the historical background of the system, its current design and organization, as well as its effects on the Flemish higher education landscape. The BOFkey in its current form relies on three bibliometric parameters: publications in Web of Science, citations in Web of Science, and publications in a comprehensive regional database for SSH publications. Taken together, the BOF-key forms a unique variant of the Norwegian model: while the system to a large extent relies on a commercial database, it avoids the problem of inadequate coverage of the SSH. Because the bibliometric parameters of the BOF-key are reused in other funding allocation schemes, their overall importance to the Flemish universities is substantial.

Performance-based Research Funding in Denmark: The Adoption and Translation of the Norwegian Model

Purpose: The main goal of this study is to outline and analyze the Danish adoption and translation of the Norwegian Publication Indicator. Design/methodology/approach: The study takes the form of a policy analysis mainly drawing on document analysis of policy papers, previously published studies and grey literature. Findings: The study highlights a number of crucial factors that relate both to the Danish process and to the final Danish result underscoring that the Danish BFI model is indeed a quite different system than its Norwegian counterpart. One consequence of these process-and design differences is the fact that the broader legitimacy of the Danish BFI today appears to be quite poor. Reasons for this include: unclear and shifting objectives throughout the process; limited willingness to take ownership of the model among stakeholders; lack of communication throughout the implementation process and an apparent underestimation of the challenges associated with the use of bibliometric indicators. Research limitation: The conclusions of the study are based on the authors’ interpretation of a long drawn and complex process with many different stakeholders involved. The format of this article does not allow for a detailed documentation of all elements, but further details can be provided upon request. Practical implications: The analysis may feed into current policy discussions on the future of the Danish BFI. Originality/value: Some elements of the present analysis have previously been published in Danish outlets, but this article represents the first publication on this issue targeting a broader international audience.

Redesigning the Model of Book Evaluation in the Polish Performance-based Research Funding System

Purpose: This study aims to present the key systemic changes in the Polish book evaluation model to focus on the publisher list, as inspired by the Norwegian Model. Design/methodology/approach: In this study we reconstruct the framework of the 2010 and 2018 models of book evaluation in Poland within the performance-based research funding system. Findings: For almost 20 years the book evaluation system in Poland has been based on the verification of various technical criteria(e.g. length of the book). The new 2018 model is based on the principle of prestige inheritance(a book is worth as much as its publisher is) and is inspired by the publisher list used in the Norwegian Model. In this paper, we argue that this solution may be a more balanced policy instrument than the previous 2010 model in which neither the quality of the publisher nor the quality of the book played any role in the evaluation.Research limitations: We work from the framework of the 2018 model of book evaluation specified in the law on higher education and science from 20 July 2018, as implementation acts are not available yet. Practical implications: This study may provide a valuable point of reference on how structural reforms in the research evaluation model were implemented on a country level. The results of this study may be interesting to policy makers, stakeholders and researchers focused on science policy. Originality/value: This is the very first study that presents the new framework of the Polish research evaluation model and policy instruments for scholarly book evaluation. We describe what motivated policy makers to change the book evaluation model, and what arguments were explicitly raised to argue for the new solution.

Applying Feature-Weighted Gradient Decent K-Nearest Neighbor to Select Promising Projects for Scientific Funding

Due to its outstanding ability in processing large quantity and high-dimensional data,machine learning models have been used in many cases,such as pattern recognition,classification,spam filtering,data mining and forecasting.As an outstanding machine learning algorithm,K-Nearest Neighbor(KNN)has been widely used in different situations,yet in selecting qualified applicants for winning a funding is almost new.The major problem lies in how to accurately determine the importance of attributes.In this paper,we propose a Feature-weighted Gradient Decent K-Nearest Neighbor(FGDKNN)method to classify funding applicants in to two types:approved ones or not approved ones.The FGDKNN is based on a gradient decent learning algorithm to update weight.It updates the weight of labels by minimizing error ratio iteratively,so that the importance of attributes can be described better.We investigate the performance of FGDKNN with Beijing Innofund.The results show that FGDKNN performs about 23%,20%,18%,15%better than KNN,SVM,DT and ANN,respectively.Moreover,the FGDKNN has fast convergence time under different training scales,and has good performance under different settings.

Aortic Dissection Research in China:Analysis of Studies Funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China

Objective The National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC)has made great progress in promoting the development of aortic dissection research in recent years.This study aimed to examine the development and research status of aortic dissection research in China so as to provide references for future research.Methods The NSFC projects data from 2008 to 2019 were collected from the Internet-based Science Information System and other websites utilized as search engines.The publications and citations were retrieved by Google Scholar,and the impact factors were checked by the InCite Journal Citation Reports database.The investigator’s degree and department were identified from the institutional faculty profiles.Results A total of 250 grant funds totaling 124.3 million Yuan and resulting in 747 publications were analyzed.The funds in economically developed and densely populated areas were more than those in underdeveloped and sparsely populated areas.There was no significant difference in the amount of funding per grant between different departments’investigators.However,the funding output ratios of the grants for cardiologists were higher than those for basic science investigators.The amount of funding for clinical researchers and basic scientific researchers in aortic dissection was also similar.Clinical researchers were better in terms of the funding output ratio.Conclusion These results suggest that the medical and scientific research level of aortic dissection in China has been greatly improved.However,there are still some problems that urgently need to be solved,such as the unreasonable regional allocation of medical and scientific research resources,and the slow transition from basic science to clinical practice.

The Effect of Funding Cuts on the Utilization of an Oral Pathology Diagnostic Service

Aim To examine what impact the loss of funding had on the utilization of the oral pathology service. Methodology Biopsy records were retrieved and examined in the two year period before and after the elimination of the subsidies in 2003.Results After the loss of fimding, there was a 31% decrease in the number of specimens submitted from practitioners in private practice, with the greatest drop noted in submissions from endodontists. Conclusion Despite the immediate decrease in the number of biopsies submitted after the introduction of fee-for-service, the number of specimens being submitted appears to be on the rise again, as practitioners appear to recognize the value of a specialized oral pathology diagnostic service.

An Alternative Funding Model for Agribusiness Research in Canada

Canadian governments have moved towards a matching funding model for agricultural research. Agricultural organizations can take advantage of this if Canadian Controlled Private Corporations are established to fund research through matching grants, tax credits and investments. A low risk options strategy is presented which uses index options and is a diagonal put spread where an in-the-money put is bought which expires in 1 to 2 years and out-of-the-money puts are sold which expire monthly. In summary, “A small Canadian Controlled Private Corporation can, for a $100,000 up front initial investment, generate at least $100,000 annually in research funding, in perpetuity”.

A Study on the Funding Management of Agricultural Scientific Research Project in the New Situation

The agricultural scientific research project funding is an important prerequisite for the implementation of agricultural scientific research project,and an essential basic condition to support agricultural research. In recent years,China has paid great attention to the development of scientific research,and increased the input of scientific research funds,but there are some shortcomings in funding management during the implementation of the project. Based on many years of practice,this paper expounds the main problems in the current funding management for agricultural scientific research project,and brings forward the relevant recommendations,in order to provide a reference for the scientific management of agricultural scientific research project funding in the new situation.

Transition of HIV prevention in three Southeast Asian countries:challenges and responses to the withdrawal of the Global Fund funding

The Global Fund has long been the largest international assistance in human immunodeficiency virus(HIV)responses for three Southeast Asian countries,including Myanmar,Laos,and Vietnam.However,it recently decided to reduce or withdraw its funding from countries not yet going through donor phase out,aiming to make these countries respond with their own resources.In examining whether these three countries are well-prepared to donor transition,we uncover potential challenges that will appear in their healthcare systems and especially in the prevention and control for vulnerable populations.By reviewing China's succesful experience in donor transition,we propose recommendations for these pre transition countries,in terms of program operation,budget allocation,and social stigmatization.

An overview of Fintech applications to solve the puzzle of health care funding:state-of-the-art in medical crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is emerging as an alternative form of funding for medical purposes,with capital being raised directly from a broader and more diverse audience of investors.In this paper,we have systematically researched and reviewed the literature on medical crowdfunding to determine how crowdfunding connects with the health care industry.The health care industry has been struggling to develop sustainable research and business models for economic systems and investors alike,especially in pharmaceuticals.The research results have revealed a wealth of evidence concerning the way crowdfunding is applied in real life.Patients and caregivers utilize web platform–based campaigns all over the world to fund their medical expenses,generally on a spot basis,using donation-based or even reward-based schemes,regardless of the health care system archetype(public,private insurance-based or hybrid).Academics have also focused on funding campaigns and the predictors of success(which range from social behaviour and environment to the basic demographics of the campaigners and their diseases)and on social and regulatory concerns,including heightened social inequality and stigma.While equity crowdfunding is disrupting the way many ventures/businesses seek capital in the market,our research indicates that there are no relevant or consistent data on the practice of medical equity crowdfunding in health care,apart from a few anecdotal cases.

Analysis of Funding Allocated to the Fight against HIV/AIDS in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 2008 to 2017

On the basis of the documentary analysis and interview, we noted that the total funds in the four interventions whose identified axes made it possible to know how the resources mobilized for the AIDS response were distributed during the period of 2008 to 2017. These funds are distributed as follows: Treatment: 1,016,982,472 USD;Prevention: 302,542,391 USD;Governance: 459,246,584 USD;Mitigation of the impact: 115,757,443 USD. It should be noted that the analysis of resource allocations by component during the period 2008 to 2017 reveals significant disparities. Indeed, it was noted that the treatment component has received significant funding compared to the other components. It is followed by governance, prevention and impact mitigation which happens to be the component that received less funding compared to the other four (4) components.