Risk-Taking and Research Funding: The Case of the Villum Experiment

Abstract Risk and risk-taking in science and their relation to creativity and novelty in research outcomes have received increasing attention in recent years. However, there is a lack of clarity about what risk-taking in science is and how it is perceived. This paper inductively explores how scientists perceive risk and risk-taking in relation to funding proposals and subsequent research plans and what strategies they use to address uncertainty in practice. We construct a multidimensional framework of risk in science and base the analysis on interview and survey data from grant recipients from the Villum Experiment Programme. Grantees perceive risk in a number of different ways, such as in terms of chances of success (publications, career, and funding), uncertainty due to use of new methods or equipment, or a new research area. While grantees expressed interest in taking on greater risk than they normally would and perceived risk-taking to be positively assessed by reviewers in the program, many interviewees still took steps to manage the risk of negative outcomes of their projects which may especially affect early-career researchers. In particular, two related strategies were employed to hedge project risk. The first was to ensure that project participation was balanced with participation in another research project with more certain outcomes. The second was to divide projects into two parts, where the first part had a certain outcome and the second part was experimental with uncertain outcomes.