(no subject)

[lovingboth]

Remember the online survey on 'an examination of high risk sexual behaviour and the potential for HIV prevention among London gay men who seek sex on the Internet' that heteronormative pointed out some time ago (July?)

Guess how much they got to do it?

Funding: £293,000 over two years (MRC grant no. G0100159)

Comments

[snagglepat.livejournal.com]

*gobsmacked*

[lovingboth]

Yep.

That's to get 3,000 responses from the net and various clinics, plus a more in-depth interview with 300 men. So.. about £100 a person, or £1,000 per interview.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

so that's a grant to pay at least a couple of people to do the research, which includes producing the survey, organising, scheduling and then conducting the interviews, and writing up the research, over a period of a coupel of years, plus to pay for the webspace and stationery used... really, when you add it all up, it doesn't seem like *that* much.

[lovingboth]

Come on, the hardest part of this will be thinking what to do in the second year. Let's look at the abstract [with comments]:

The Internet provides a new meeting ground for gay men that did not exist in the early 1990s. [True, but there were a host of bulletin board services doing exactly the same thing.]

Previous studies have found increased levels of high risk sexual behaviour and sexually transmitted disease among gay men who seek sex on the Internet. [So we already know half the results.]

However, these studies were not able to establish whether the excess risk actually occurred with sexual partners men met through the Internet. [Mildly interesting, but basically 'So what?']

If this proves to be the case, the Internet may represent a new sexual risk environment, possibly attracting men who have limited contact with the established gay scene or health promotion agencies. [The previous research will / should have already covered this.]

This is a two person-year job at most. If this went out to tender, I'd put in a bid to do it for £120k and I'd be amazed if that were the lowest.

Particularly as I see that I got the number to 'interview' wrong: it's not 300, it's 120.

Oooh look... the person who's got this - Professor Jonathon Elford - is on the Sexual Health and HIV Research Strategy Committee that appears to decide who gets the grants. Gosh.