Funding

Funding is increasingly being recognized as an enabler for qualitative research, usually in the form of financial support that is given so that the research can be both undertaken and completed in a timely manner. With respect to qualitative research, such support can take various forms. One example is when researchers and/or research institutions are granted a certain amount of money to be used directly for research-related costs. These costs might include salaries, equipment, travel, or other expenses identified as necessary to enable the conduct and completion of the research. In other cases, in-kind funding support for projects may be offered. For example, rather than being given cash, the researchers could be provided with access to certain equipment or to specialist staff such as professional transcribers if interviews are part of the research, translators if the research involves working across different ethnic and language groups, and sometimes experts in particular substantive fields whose expertise is needed for particular parts of the research being undertaken. Equipment can range from computing resources such as laptops or specialized software such as NVivo to company or pool cars or office space and furniture. Often both cash and in-kind support are offered as funding for particular research projects. Thus, when researchers talk about funding for qualitative research, this refers not only to monetary support, but also can take various forms and guises. This discussion aims to describe and explain some different funding options for qualitative research and to highlight the processes and issues involved in each.

Historically, and particularly when compared to more quantitative or basic science types of research, qualitative research has not attracted large amounts of funding, if any. This, Janice Morse notes, has led to a false assumption on the part of some funders, even some researchers, that qualitative research does not require funding or at least not to the same extent as other types of research projects. Although some qualitative research projects may indeed not need funding or not much funding as they are relatively small in focus and located in the researcher's local area, other studies cannot happen unless they are funded in some way. Such studies may be located in more than one geographical area and could involve a relatively large number of participants. On the other hand, in one sense all qualitative research is funded, as it is supported by the time spent on research by the researcher. In the current workplace climate, with its emphasis on cost recovery and accountability for time spent, many qualitative researchers find their available time for doing research being constantly eroded by workload in other areas, and this problem creates pressure to seek monetary and in-kind funding for the research, which can include buying the researcher's time. Increasingly, for researchers to be given time to carry out their research, they must attract funding that can either pay outright for their time or bring money into the institutions where they work so as to cover the cost of their time spent on research.

This need in turn raises another set of issues for qualitative researchers. In the past, many qualitative researchers have carried out all parts of the research process themselves as part of their day-to-day work as academics, students, or practitioners. They have recruited participants, gained relevant permissions, collected the data, analyzed that data, and written the report in its entirety. In fact, some qualitative researchers have argued that in order to maintain the integrity of their particular approach to qualitative research, it is imperative that they do so. This belief highlights one of the issues pertaining to the place and role of funding in qualitative research studies—how much of the research needs to be done by the researchers themselves and how much can be done by others? For example, is it necessary for researchers to conduct or transcribe or even listen to the text of every interview [Page 361]in a study, or is reading the transcripts of interviews conducted by research assistant staff and produced by a professional transcriber sufficient? There is no right answer to this type of question. Depending on which type of qualitative research is being used in a particular study, the answer may vary. It is, however, important that these questions are considered so that sound methodologically based answers and research design related rationales can be produced for the decisions made.

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