| Abstract: |
Researchers who receive the Rubicon grant perform the same as comparable
non-awarded applicants on a number of academic outcomes, such as the number of
scientific publications and the citation score. The grant is aimed at starting
researchers and finances a stay of maximum two years at a research institute
outside the Netherlands. This allows them to acquire new contacts and ideas,
which might increase their academic performance. However, our recent research
finds no evidence for this. The research uses data from the Dutch Research
Council NWO on applicants for the Rubicon grant. Because NWO has limited
budgets, only the most promising applicants can be granted. This allows us to
compare applicants who just were awarded with applicants who were just not
awarded. We study the probability that the researcher stops publishing, the
number of publications, the citation score and the number of co-authors in the
five years following the grant application. We find no significant differences
between awarded and non-awarded applicants. |