Negotiating science funding: The interplay of merit, bias, and administrative discretion in grant allocation in Kazakhstan
Medeuov D. Rodionova K. Sabitov Z. Rodionov A.
May 2025Public Library of Science
PLOS ONE
2025#20Issue 5 May
This paper analyzes 4,488 applications from a grant funding competition held in 2017 in Kazakhstan. The competition had a two-stage design: first, anonymous subject matter experts evaluated the applications’ scientific potential; then, open panels of local science managers made the final decisions. We analyze a range of bibliometric, institutional, and demographic variables associated with the applications and show that review scores account for only a small variation in success rates. The most important factor is the organizational closeness to decision-making. Gender also plays a role: we find that, net of academic merit, men and women investigators receive similar review scores, yet the panelists grant awards to men more often than to women. We further demonstrate that the gender gap emerges due to decisions made in a specific domain—Natural Resource Management.
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Department of Sociology and Anthropology, School of Sciences and Humanities, Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan
L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Astana, Kazakhstan
Research Institute for Jochi Ulus Studies, Astana, Kazakhstan
Institute of Eurasian Integration, Astana, Kazakhstan
Maqsut Narikbayev Institute for Network and Development, Maqsut Narikbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University
Research Institute for Jochi Ulus Studies
Institute of Eurasian Integration
Maqsut Narikbayev Institute for Network and Development
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