Making good science even better
The Volkswagen Foundation is the only funding organization from Germany to become a member of the international "Research on Research Institute", whose ambitious mission is to optimize science cultures – worldwide.
20 research and funding organizations from 12 different countries make up the Research on Research Institute (RoRI). Together they account for research investments totaling some 20 billion US dollars annually. The private Volkswagen Foundation based in Hannover is the only funding institution from Germany to be part of this consortium. Founded in September 2019, the RoRI's mission is to conduct research into scientific cultures across regions and institutions:
* How is research funded, practiced and evaluated in different countries?
* How do funding bodies arrive at fair decisions?
* How can interdisciplinarity, diversity and career opportunities be promoted most effectively?
* How can research cultures be made more open, inclusive and effective?
The RoRI is currently rolling out its concrete project work. Various consortia of RoRI partners such as the Volkswagen Foundation are initiating individual projects, for example on career paths in research or randomization in research funding. RoRI will critically monitor this process with a view to developing new instruments, indicators, funding formats and evaluation frameworks in such a way that they can later be transferred as standards to as many national scientific cultures as possible. The handling and consequences of the high budgets currently flowing into SARS-CoV-2 research will also be a subject of investigation.
Dr. Georg Schütte, Secretary General of the Volkswagen Foundation: "The pandemic has made it clear that in today’s world efficient research can only be thought of globally, closely networked and with a free exchange of data. SARS-CoV-2 has literally forced innovations in the areas of research funding, evaluation, open science, peer review and communication at a breathtaking pace. If we draw the right conclusions from this, our joint work in RoRI will help to make the diversity, flexibility and resilience of international research systems even more robust. This would enable major funding agencies like us to act more quickly and efficiently in the future – and at the same time fulfill our responsibility to society even better".
Link to the homepage of the "Research on Research Institute".
