Grant panels ‘should have equality training’, says report

Why not try this for one year. Anyone who is research active can put their name forward for a grant. That is all they have to do, no proposal or anything. Like the lottery, there is one 'big prize' and more smaller prizes. Applicants must specify whether they want a big prize or a small prize, the incentive being you are more likely to win if you apply for a small prize. Prize winners are selected by lottery. They must conduct their research according to specified ethical standards, and meet quantitative output requirements (eg number of articles etc) and also dissemination minima, inc OA requirements That is evaluated, and if not met, then their universities have to give the money back. A small RCUK team is able to provide advice while projects are running to check they are up to scratch. Can it be any worse ? What is the actual cost of bidding, successful and otherwise, research council infrastructure, panels and so on. Rightly, if the exist, panels should be trained. Or, applicants should be selected at random having demonstrated basic competence, and gender would not come into it. Is what we have so much better than my proposal ? Is it that much better that it justifies the money that would otherwise be spent on research per se ? This also would force universities to revert to research for the sake of research (to get into the pool in the first place) rather than bidding because research income is an end in itself, and not a research input.