What is the process for applying for research funding?
The evaluation of bids in response to invitations to tender for research is performed by GambleAware's Independent Research Review Group. This Group advises the Research & Evaluation Committee, which then takes the final decision. In the case of treatment and harm prevention-related invitations to tender, it is the GambleAware Education & Treatment Committee that reviews submissions and advises GambleAware's full board of trustees. The minutes of these meetings may list all the applicants as well as identifying those to whom grants are awarded.
Unfortunately GambleAware cannot accept unsolicited proposals.
If you are a researcher and wish to receive notification of any new invitations to tender for research that are issued by GambleAware, please email us and request to be added to the GambleAware 'ITT database'.
How do you appoint researchers?
We generally issue calls for proposals for all major research projects we commission.
What is your annual research budget?
We allocate around 15% of our income each year to research.
What is your data reuse policy?
GambleAware follows Research Council policy regarding data reuse. Research data is a public good which should be available for full exploitation. GambleAware commissioned research generates a range of datasets of potential value. While such datasets can contain commercial or sensitive data, data reuse practice enables data sharing even in this context.
Researchers are required to make available for reuse, primary data collected or generated during research or derived from existing sources, in a timely way, with as few restrictions as possible, compliant with ethics, privacy and intellectual property. Non-deposit of research data is an exception which must be justified. Specifically, research is required to adhere to the following requirements and include in ITT Responses a data management and sharing plan, with costs for this included in ITT Responses.
Who determines what research you commission?
The Advisory Board for Safer Gambling (ABSG) advises the Gambling Commission and, in turn, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), on research, education and treatment programmes needed to support a national strategy to reduce gambling harms and associated funding requirements. Responsibilities for commissioning research are shared between us and ABSG under the terms of an agreement signed in 2012.
The Advisory Board for Safer Gambling has responsibility for:
GambleAware has responsibility for:
What it your policy on ethics and data protection?
GambleAware requires research to comply at all times with good practice in research ethics and with data protection legislation. This is especially the case as much of the research commissioned involves vulnerable people.
Researchers must:
How do you determine when to publish research?
Researchers are free to publish research when it is ready (following peer review). We will not delay publication for political or commercial reasons. Partners who participate in research e.g. by providing data or access to venues, and the media, may from time to time be given embargoed copies of completed research but this is only ever in its final published form and cannot be amended in any way at this stage.
What happens if the gambling industry tries to influence researchers?
We include a "whistle-blowing" clause which guarantees researchers can walk away from projects we've commissioned and still receive their full grant if they demonstrate that industry has made any attempt to unduly influence their work. Equally, if we discover that any research we are funding has been unduly influenced with the connivance of the researchers, we can cancel the grant.
Some researchers refuse to do work funded by the gambling industry, in spite of these safeguards. Would it not be better for the government to fund this research independently?
GambleAware is an independent charity, funded by donations from the gambling industry. The industry has no influence over the direction of our research commissioning strategy (see Who determines what research you commission? above). We work within the current system, but are open to reform if ministers decided there was a better approach. We have previously sought to work through academic funding bodies, but they found themselves unable to award any funds after peer review of the applications they received. We are also regulated by the Charity Commission which is independent of the government, reporting directly to the Crown – in other jurisdictions where government regulators commission research, there is often controversy about whether concerns about the revenue impact of gambling undermines independence.