In the modern era, scientific research is funded by research grant provided by either government or private philanthropy. Naturally, there are built-in mechanisms to ensure that the research grant money (which can number in the millions of dollars over 5 years) is spent wisely to buy equipment and pay for manpower to perform research to solve the research problem. One regulatory mechanism is the concept of research deliverables.
Briefly, research deliverables are items that the principal investigators promise to deliver to the funding agency at the end of the research project. Generally, these are scientific outcomes such as the new approach outlined will enhance the detection of the target pathogen at a lower detection limit. Such scientific outcomes can be construed as hard targets or desirable targets by the funding agency on a case-by-case basis. But generally, principal investigators are usually held accountable for fulfilling these research deliverables and will be graded accordingly on whether they have successfully executed a particular research project. These grading constitute points that can work for or against the principal investigator when they next apply for a project extension or new research funding from the same funding agency.
While research deliverables add discipline to the research process, it can be suffocating to the researchers or even myopic on hindsight as new avenues and tangential leads may be more interesting than the initial approach outlined in the research funding proposal. In short, the need to fulfil the research deliverables constrains the project’s execution, and may dent the nascent career of a doctoral student who may have other ideas on how the project should evolve and move forward. In such cases, the doctoral student may have no choice but to stick to the methods and approaches outlined in the research proposal to complete the project. Such a Ph.D. thesis is tightly constrained, and may dent a budding scientific career.
Category: education,
Tags: research project, research deliverables, research funding, constrains,
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