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My colleague at the University of Sheffield Tim Birkhead (who I do not know personally) has highlighted a major problem in academia - grant application and reviewing processes. However, the solution he offers - giving scholars research money as a reward for high-quality teaching - seems unworkable.

The solution is exactly as Times Higher Education puts it in the standfirst of Birkhead's article: "simplify grant applications". A start would be to have better screening processes, a la Leverhulme Trust, so that applications become more detailed as they progress through the process.

More thought must be put into redesigning processes in order to reduce wastages of time and other resources. Let's hope that this can be prioritised and not get bogged down in committee discussions.

Stephen Wood, Institute of Work Psychology, University of Sheffield.