I fully support the need for systematic reviews prior to funding to help reduce waste. It may also be useful for applicants to be asked to search clinical trial registries (e.g., clinicaltrials.gov) to make sure their planned study is not already happening. Perhaps better still, the funding agencies could run searches of registries based on the authors title and abstract, and then ask the applicants to comment on any potential overlap.
Rapid Response:
Re: Towards evidence based research
I fully support the need for systematic reviews prior to funding to help reduce waste. It may also be useful for applicants to be asked to search clinical trial registries (e.g., clinicaltrials.gov) to make sure their planned study is not already happening. Perhaps better still, the funding agencies could run searches of registries based on the authors title and abstract, and then ask the applicants to comment on any potential overlap.
Competing interests: No competing interests