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I am trying to create a database of publicly funded research projects related to the topic of environmental assessments in trade agreements, so that I can map these and do some other analysis. Does anyone know if there is a database or online resource already out there?
My best idea so far is to scrape google scholar, but this will be super inconsistent in getting data on who funded certain projects or where they took place.
Do any more expereinced researchers have any ideas?
Many funding bodies have databases of funded projects, such as the German science foundation (DFG) having GEPRIS, or the US National Science Foundation having the NSF Award Search.
You could pick a sample of funding bodies and perform a manual search to obtain your data. Whether it is useful depends on what you need to the database for. Note that the texts in the existing databases are covered by copyright, so you will have to adhere to their terms and conditions.
For the US, you can use USAspending.gov. Here's an example search.
The search isn't great, but it's the only way you're going to find most contracts, particularly with DOD. You can download the data, but you'll have to spend a lot of time combing through it, as the keywords may or may not capture what you want. If you find award numbers in the context of Google Scholar, you can look them up here. The main issue is that some of the cited award numbers won't match the FAIN (Federal Award Identification Number) in formatting (NIH is the most famous for that, because they add some additional info, e.g., the year of the project).
