What constitutes excellent research
In scientific research, excellence is crucial. What's more: the SNSF is legally obliged to fund excellent projects. In a new model, it explains what it means by excellence.
Excellent research is not an end in itself, but should lead to the greatest possible knowledge gain for science and beyond. The SNSF's excellence model addresses three core areas: the question, the methods and the behaviours.
From original to acknowledging
For example, an excellent question is original and has not been asked before. Or it repeats research (replication) to solve a persisting problem. Moreover, the intended approach to the problem promises to generate new knowledge and lead to real progress.
The methods are very likely to lead to the question being answered efficiently and conclusively. Scientific rigour demands that researchers collect and analyse their data according to high, internationally recognised standards. And it is important that they publish openly to facilitate the reproducibility and re-use of their results.
Furthermore, excellent research can be characterised by an intensive exchange within the scientific community as well as with people in politics, the media and business. Of course, the researchers acknowledge all third-party contributions that have gone into their project. And they disclose conflicts of interest.
Guidance instead of a checklist
"We have devised this model because a clear, contemporary and uniform understanding of excellence is of enormous importance for our selection procedures," says Matthias Egger, President of the SNSF National Research Council. "At the same time, we were aware from the outset that we would not do justice to the diversity of the various disciplines with strict definitions or individual indicators. The model is therefore not a simple checklist, but provides guidance. To expect that researchers or their projects excel at all aspects simultaneously is neither realistic nor possible."
The publication of the excellence model is a first step for the SNSF. "We will collect extensive feedback on this model and develop it further in line with practical experience," says Matthias Egger. Like research, the model is not an end in itself; it is intended to help the SNSF's evaluation bodies provide the best possible support for outstanding researchers and their ideas.