Develop and implement an advocacy campaign for funding agencies to provide a funding pool for short-term maintenance grants for existing projects

[dr-eric-jensen]

Potential Activity Scope
The sustainability of projects often hinges on continuous maintenance and support. While long-term funding is frequently sought, the importance of short-term maintenance grants cannot be overlooked. These grants can serve as a lifeline for existing projects, ensuring their viability, relevance, and impact. Thie paucity of such grants in the current funding landscape highlights the need for an advocacy campaign targeted at funding agencies to provide a dedicated funding pool for short-term maintenance grants for existing projects.

The Need for Short-Term Maintenance Grants

Short-term maintenance grants provide a critical buffer, allowing projects to adapt, evolve, and sustain in the face of challenges and uncertainties. They enable projects to respond to emerging needs, leverage new opportunities, and maintain alignment with strategic goals.

The Role of Funding Agencies

Funding agencies are key players in the research ecosystem, shaping the priorities, practices, and paradigms of the community. By providing a funding pool for short-term maintenance grants, funding agencies can demonstrate their commitment to sustainability, flexibility, and responsibility.

Developing and Implementing an Advocacy Campaign

The development and implementation of an advocacy campaign for this purpose require a strategic, systematic, and contextually sensitive approach. It involves understanding the perspectives, interests, and incentives of funding agencies. It involves crafting compelling messages, narratives, and evidence that resonate with the values, visions, and voices of the funding agencies.

Potential Objectives

• To engage with funding agencies, researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders to understand their perspectives, priorities, and practices related to short-term maintenance grants.
• To develop a compelling rationale, framework, and strategy for the advocacy campaign, integrating stakeholder insights and evidence.
• To craft compelling messages, narratives, and materials that resonate with the values, visions, and voices of funding agencies and other stakeholders.
• To implement the advocacy campaign through targeted engagement, collaboration, and communication.
• To monitor, evaluate, and adapt the advocacy campaign, ensuring its relevance, responsiveness, robustness, and resilience.

Targeted Impacts

• Funding agencies will recognize and prioritize short-term maintenance grants, reflecting a shift in their funding paradigms, practices, and priorities.
• Existing projects will benefit from the availability of short-term maintenance grants, enhancing their viability, relevance, and impact.

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This potential activity was curated as part of "Charting the Course: Policy and Planning for Sustainable Research Software," a Sloan Foundation-funded project within URSSI dedicated to supporting the future of research software through evidence-informed policy work (Project contacts are: @danielskatz and @dr-eric-jensen). If you are interested in working on this, please add a comment.