Funding and Research Output Data

The following dataset includes the anonymized and aggregated data underlying the following publication:

Heyard, R., Hottenrott, H. The value of research funding for knowledge creation and dissemination: A study of SNSF Research Grants. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 8, 217 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00891-x 

The dataset includes researcher-year observations, so each row of the CSV represents one research, identified by an anonymised identifier, for a given year. Included researchers applied for funding by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). The variables are described in the data dictionnairy (see file data_dic.csv). 

Inclusion criteria:

All researchers who applied to SNSF funding instrument project funding or Sinergia asmain applicant (e.g. PI) or co-applicant11 (e.g. co-PI) are included.

Our observation period started in the year 2005 and ends in 2019.

Dynamic, Researcher-specific Observation Period: it starts with the year in which the SNSF observes the researcher for the first time as (co-)PI to PF or as a career funding grantholder (after the postdoctoral level); the year the independent research career starts. However, this study period has its lower bound in 2005. The period ends in 2019 for everyone, and some researchers are observed for a longer period than others.

Data anonymisation considerations:

To ensure pseudo-anonymization of the data we only provide applicants’ age as categorical variable.

Provenance of the data:

The dataset was build by combining data owned by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) on researcher who submitted a proposal and were either funded or not, with data from Dimensions (dimensions.ai), a commercial database on scientific publications, which was access via an API (for which service the SNSF paid). All request regarding the process of data retrieval have to be addressed to the SNSF ([e-mail]); same goes for the analysis code.