Is academic research becoming too competitive? Nature examines the data

Naddaf, Miryam

3 min read Original article ↗

Success rates for Europe’s leading research grants are declining — some to single percentage points — as a surge in applications far outweighs the funds available. Data gathered by Nature show that researchers, especially those at the start of their academic journeys, are facing increasingly fierce competition to pursue research careers (see ‘Funding competition’).

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Nature 646, 1036-1037 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03119-z

References

  1. Meirmans, S. Sci. Eng. Ethics 30, 6 (2024).

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