Abstract
The quality of higher education and research is strongly connected to the quality of the people
working in the academic sector. For excellent science, excellent scientists are needed. The pool
of competent scholars with academic career ambitions has been growing for the past decades.
As public funding of universities has not matched this rise of (potential) staff, academics have
become more dependent on competitive external project funding and individual funding.
Publishing and grant proposal writing are two activities of major importance for especially early
career researcher who aim to advance in academia. Funding organizations therefore play a crucial
role in the development of academic careers, next to universities that increasingly focus on
attracting and retaining academic top talent. The research questions of this study, ‘What is
academic talent and how is it selected?’ aim to create a better understanding of the process of
talent selection within academia, especially in the context of grant allocation.
Key results of this study address the criteria used in talent assessment and more speci? cally the
weight assigned to publications; the social and competitive nature of grant allocation processes;
the role of gender in talent selection and gender differences in academic performance; and
factors supporting or impeding academic careers.
This study feeds current debates on scienti? c quality and the growing competition for funding
and academic positions with empirical arguments. It re? ects on the existing mechanisms of talent
selection and ends with a discussion on the implications for higher education and science policy
to uphold and stimulate academic talent.
